E 

448 
03 


TREATISE 


AFRICAN     COLONIZATION 


IN   WHICH   THE    PRINCIPLES,   OBJECTS,    AND   CLAIMS,    OF    THAT 
INSTITUTION   ARE    SET   FORTH   IN    A.    CONDFNSED    FORM. 


BY   L.    B.  .CASTLE, 

Minister  of  the  Gospel,  &  Agent  of  the  N.  Y.  S.  C.  S. 


GENEVA,  N.  Y. 

SCOTTEN     &     VAN      BRUNT. 
1844. 


£443 


I 


DEDICATION. 


To  THE  REV.  MR.  CURRAY. 

DEAR  SIR — A  lecture  of  yours,  in  behalf  of  African 
Colonization,  delivered  in  the  Court  House  on  July  4, 
1830.  in  the  village  of  Lockport,  led  me  to  embrace  that 
noble  cause.  As  a  token  of  respect  for  the  services  you 
have  rendered  to  the  "African  tribes"  and  also  to  "Africo- 
Arnericans,"  in  promoting  tha  interests  of  that  philanthropic 
institution ;  as  well  as  for  your  ministerial  worth  and 
talents,  this  treatise  is  humbly  dedicated  by 

THE  AUTHOR. 


M102108 


TREATISE, 


SLAVERY — as  an  institution,  is  probably  as  old  as  the  days 
of"Nimrodthe  mighty  hunter;"  Gen,  10,  8 — 9.  It  seems 
originally  to  have  had  no  respect  to  birth,  country,  or  com 
plexion  ;  but  was  predicated  on  the  universally  acknowledg 
ed  right  of  the  conqueror  to  the  person,  and  even  the  life  of 
the  vanquished.  It  increased  with  the  growth  of  nations  and 
multiplication  of  wars,  was  participated  in  by  all  nations 
either  by  conquest  or  purchase  down  to  the  14th  century 
of  the  Christian  era;  when  "the  benign  influences  of  the  Gos 
pel1'  as  Grotius  remarks  '•  was  the  great  and  almost  the  only 
cause  of  its  abolition." 

"  The  friends  of  man  can  never  thunder  forth  too  fre 
quently  nor  too  loudly,  in  the  ears  of  those  who  would 
quote  scripture  in  justification  of  slavery;  that  it  was  Chris 
tianity  which  ameliorated  the  condition  of  slaves  under  the 
Roman  government;  and  inclined  Constantine  to  render 
their  manumission  much  easier  than  formerly ;  and  which, 
in  conformity  with  its  principles,  claims  the  merit  of  having 
gone  furthest  towards  the  abolition  of  this  debasing  institu 
tion  throughout  nearly  all  Europe" — Gurley. 

If,  as  commentators  uniformly  suppose,  and  as  clearly 


O  SLAVERY. 

appears  from  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  Patriarchal  history, 
God's  ancient  covenant  people  where  allowed  to  participate 
in  this  traffic;  it  was  because  slavery  existed  among  the  bar 
barous  tribes,  and  the  purchase  of  them  by  the  patriarchs  and 
jews  would  be  greatly  improving  the  condition  of  the  slave 
bringing  him  under  the  influence  of  divine  theology,  while 
the  spirit  and  influence  of  that  theology  would  effectually 
work  his  liberat)'o:vatid,  incorporate  him  with  the  people  of 
God,  Qr  send'  hinl  bac,Vto  his  country  a  missionary  of  civl- 
lizatioi?'  and,  rsligion.' 

•'  jiiuiay  fce.  safely  admitted' too,  that  the  New  Testament 
no  where  forbids  absolutely  the  custom;  nevertheless  as 
Ward  justly  observes, 

i(  The  spirit  of  the  system  there  displayed  effectually  taught  the 
course  of  conduct  which  ought  to  be  pursued  towards  the  enslaved  ; 
by  commanding  them  to  look  upon  all  men  as  brethren,  to  love  them 
as  themselves,  and  to  do  unto  others  as  they  would  others  should  do 
to  them." 

"  Since ;"  says  Sir  Thomas  Smith  "  our  realm  hath  received  the 
Christian,  which  maketh  us  all  in  Christ  brethren,  and  in  respect  of 
God  and  Christ  conserves,  men  began  to  have  conscience  to  hold  in 
captivity  and  bondage  him  whom  they  acknowledge  as  their  brother.'7 

"Upon  this  scruple  the  holy  fathers  and  friars,  in  their  confessions, 
and  especially  in  their  deadly  sicknesses,  burdened  in  their  consciences 
of  them  whom  they  had  in  their  hands;  so  that  temporal  men  by  little 
and  little  by  reason  of  that  terror,  were  glad  to  manumit  all  their  vil- 
lanies." 

Thus  the  spirit  of  that  institution  which  breathes  univer 
sal  love,  gradually  gained  upon  the  tyranny  and  avarice  of 
depraved  and  cruel  man,  until  not  only  Rome's  sixty  mil 
lions  of  slaves,  but  nearly  all  Europe's  bond  servants  were 
manumitted. 

"While  beneath  the  light  and  power  of  Christianity,  the  last  vestigts 
of  slavery  were  well  nigh  effaced  from  the  soil  of  Christendom;  the 
African  slave  trade  arose,  which,  whether  regarded  as  productive  of 
misery  or  crime  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  the  world:" 
Life  of  Jlshmun. 

The  Portuguese  opened  this  drama  cf  blood-guiltiness 


AFRICAN    SLAVERY. 

early  in  the  15th  century,  under  the  authority  of  the  pope 
by  planting  colonies  in  Africa  which  served  them  as  slave  - 
marts ;  and  their  example  excited  all  the  maritime  powers 
of  Europe  to  engage  in  the  trade,  which  having  been  pro 
secuted  for  300  years  has  consigned  probably  more  than  20 
millions  of  unfortunate  Africans  to  bondage  or  death. 

"The  decrees  of  five  successive  pontiffs  granted,  conveyed  and  con- 
iirmea  to  the  most  faithful  king  a  light  to  appropriate  the  kingdoms, 
goods,  and  possessions  of  all  infidels,  to  reduce  their  persons  to  slavery 
or  destroy  them  from  the  earth,  for  the  declared  purpose  of  bringing 
the  Lord's  sheep  into  one  dominical  fold,  under  one  universal  pastor. 
We  suppose  then  that  8,000,000  have  been  shipped  in  Africa  for  the 
West  India  Islands  and  America,  10,000,000  for  South  America,  and 
2,000,000  held  in  Africa. 

"By  whom  has  this  commerce  been  opened  and  so  long  and  so  ar 
dently  pursued?  the  subjects  of  their  most  Faithful,  most  Christian, 
most  Catholic,  most  Protestant,  Majesties,  defenders  of  the  faith,  and 
by  the  citizens  of  the  most  most  free,  most  liberal,  most  republican  states 
and  with  the  sanction  of  St.  Peter's  successor."— .Dr.  Dana. 

This  inhuman  traffic  therefore  has  brought  to  the  shores 
of  this  (now)  "land  of  the  free"  multitudes  of  those  degra 
ded,  suffering  victims  of  violence  and  lawless  cupidity,  and 
hence  the  existence  of  that  institution  among  us  so  detested 
and  detestable  denominated  African  slavery.  It  was  while 
these  were  British  colonies  that  the  system  of  slavery,  so 
abhorrent  to  every  principle  of  kindness  and  humanity;  and 
so  contradictory  to  the  principles  of  republicanism,  which, 
though  then  in  embryo  were  destined  to  mature  and  ripen, 
to  the  mortification  of  British  pride,  if  not  to  the  final  wither 
ing  of  kingly  arrogance  :  it  was  therefore  regarded  as  the 
tares  of  despotism  intermingled  with  the  pure  seed  of  de 
mocracy  by  all  who  had  sincerely  sought  in  this  retreat  an 
asylum  from  intolerance  and  oppression.  Statesmen  and  di 
vines  but  quakers  especially,  failed  not  to  remonstrate 
•igainst  it,  memorials  were  addressed  to  the  court  of  Eng 
land  praying  for  the  interposition  of  British  authority  against 
she  inhuman  practice,  and  some  slaves  were  actually  wres 


AFRICAN    SLAVERY. 

ted  from  their  pretended  owners  and  sent  back  to  Africa, 
The  power  of  avarice,  sustained  by  British  law  triumphed, 
and  philanthropy  and  piety  like  the  two  witnesses  prophe 
sied  in  sackcloth — slavery  grew  with  our  growth  ;  it  soon 
became  interwoven  with  all  the  interests  and  habits  of  socie 
ty  ;  our  fathers  at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  for  in 
dependence,  found  the  evil  too  extensive  and  complicated, 
to  admit,  in  their  judgment,  at  that  season  of  peril  to  their 
own  liberties,  of  a  remedy.  They  felt  that  it  was  an  insti 
tution  at  variance  with  their  political  creed;  that  morally 
wrong  in  its  origin,  it  would  be  perpetuated  only  by  viola 
tion  of  justice;  but  they  consoled  themselves  with  the  re 
flection  that  it  was  forced  upon  them,  and  that  in  that  time 
of  general  agitation  and  distress  it  was  beyond  their  control, 
and  that,  should  their  liberties  be  secured,  it  might  be  effec 
ted  during  a  more  quiet  state  of  public  affairs . 

The  independence  of  the  United  States  being  acknow 
ledged  by  the  mother  country,  a  new  form  of  government 
was  to  beadopted  ;  and  in  this  case  unitu  was  properly  con 
sidered  by  all,  as  a  matter  of  primary  importance.  Many  of 
those  who  gave  their  support  to  the  constitution,  saw  Mrith 
regret,  that  it  recognized  moral  wrong  in  the  laws  of  some 
states  ;  but  fondly  hoping  that  national  union  would  favor 
the  cause  of  universal  liberty,  and  firmly  believing  that  the 
principles  of  a  free  government  could  not  for  any  great 
length  of  time  tolerate  the  institution  of  slavery,  they  did  it 
expecting  that  at  no  distant  period  a  termination  of  the  great 
evil  would  be  brought  about. 

These  advocates  of  human  rights,  on  leaving  the  legisla 
tive  hall,  exerted  their  influence  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  noble  purpose  in  their  respective  states;  nor  did  they 
cease  their  efforts  until  northern  emancipation  was  accom- 


CONDITION    OP    THE    FREE    COLORED, 

plished.  In  the  northern  states,  while  the  severity  of  the 
winter  rendered  the  newly  imported  African  useless  and 
even  burdensome,  and  the  moderation  of  the  summers  heat 
was  quite  consistent  with  the  labor  of  European  emigrants 
and  beasts  of  burden ;  principle  met  with  but  a  feeble  re 
sistance  from  interest,  in  its  promptings  to  the  discharge  of 
duty  ;  and  at  the  south  too,  although  interest  was  more  for 
midable,  the  growing  sense  of  humanity  and  religion  produ 
ced  numerous  manumissions,  so  that  a  class  of  free  people 
of  color  arose  and  for  a  time  greatly  increased.  Among 
the  most  zealous  advocates  of  emancipation,  and  one  who 
was  second  perhaps  to  none  in  sacrifices  and  efforts  for  its 
accomplishment  was  the  celebrated  Dr.  Finly  of  N.  J. 
who  has  deservedly  the  honor  also  of  devising  the  scheme 
of  African  Colonization. 

This  eminent  philantropist  and  Christian  minister  lived 
to  witness  and  mark  the  results  of  northern  emancipation 
for  25  years,  and  with  many  of  his  contemporaries  and  fel 
low  laborers  in  this  deed  of  love  frankly  confessed  himself 
disappointed  in  its  influence  upon  the  colored  race. 

If  a  few  became  industrious  and  enterprising,  and  by 
studious  habits  and  in  honest  and  honorable  pursuits  secured 
or  merited  respect,  this  was  far  from  being  the  case  with 
most.  But  now  and  then  one  engaged  in  agricultural  or 
mechanical  occupations,  or  indeed  in  any  undertaking  which 
required  a  constant  exertion  of  the  mental  or  physical  ener 
gies,  and  on  the  whole  there  was  little  or  no  intellectual  im 
provement,  a  degeneration  in  their  morals  and  as  a  conse 
quence  a  diminution  in  numbers. 

The  causes  of  this  deterioration  were  very  obvious.  Thin- 
Ij  scattered  among  a  people  separate  and  distinct  from 
themselves  they  were  deprived  of  social  privileges  and  en- 


10  CONDITION    OF    THE 

joyments,  this  operated  as  a  sort  of  imprisonment ;  igno 
rant,  proscribed  and  not  unfrequently  insulted  and  abused, 
they  had  constantly  before  their  eyes  a  mortifying  contrast 
between  themselves  and  their  neighbors,  and  though  called 
free  they  were  really  in  civil  bondage,  and  under  embarras-- 
ments  directly  calculated  to  impede  and  vitiate  their  moral, 
intellectual  and  mental  energies  and  enervate  their  physi 
cal  powers. 

The  controversy,  however,  is  not,  whether  or  no  the  con 
dition  of  the  freed  man  of  color  is  deplorable  and  should  be 
ameliorated  and  improved;  but  whether  he  or  his  friends 
can  rationally  hope  to  free  him  from  these  embarrassments 
while  he  sustains  his  present  relation  to  the  whites. 

The  founders  of  this  institution  argued  that  so  long  as  the 
races  continued  separate  and  distinct,  prejudices  and  jeal 
ousies  will  be  likely  to  operate  greatly  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  weaker,  and  so  long  as  objections  founded  upon  com 
plexion  and  features  which  characterize  each,  prove  a  bar 
to  matrimonial  alliances,  so  long  it  is  probable  if  not  certain, 
that  the  one  will  be  the  privileged,  the  other  the  proscri 
bed,  the  one  the  ruler  the  other  the  ruled,  and  indeed,  the 
one  the  master  the  other  the  slave  ;  at  least  in  a  civil  sense. 
In  support  of  this  theory  they  appealed  to  the  history  of  for 
mer  ages  ;  from  which  it  appears,  that  though  repeated  ef 
forts  have  been  made  by  treaties  of  amity  and  alliance,  ra 
tified  by  covenants  the  most  solemn  and  binding,  in  every  in_ 
stance  recorded  where  different  sorts  of  people  have  attemp 
ted  to  dwell  together  under  one  government,  jealousies  have 
arisen,  discords  have  ensued,  and  if  neither  have  submitted 
to  the  yoke  of  bondage,  blood  and  carnage  have  driven  ei 
ther  to  expatriation  or  extinction,  the  weaker  party.  Their 
maxim  was  "two  sorts  of  people  separate  and  distinct  from 


FREE    COLORED. 


11 


each  other  will  not  dwell  together  on  terras  of  equality  and 
reciprocity. 

On  the  supposition  however,  that  the  negro  race  may  yet 
be  elevated  among  us,  even  to  a  level  with  ourselves, 
which  is  to  admit  the  inadmissible  hypothises,  that  they  are 
distinct  from  us,  and  yet  there  is  no  distinction  made  be 
tween  us— or  that  there  is  a  difference  and  yet  no  difference, 
even  then  what  disadvantage  would  accrue  from  the  pro 
posed  separation?-  it  is  urged  "this  is  the  land  of  their  birth 
and  of  all  their  endearments,"  so  also  it  is  the  land  of  their 
oppression.  But  the  Israelites,  the  Puritans,  and  multitudes 
of  Europeans  have  gladly  left  the  "  land  of  their  birth"  for 
the  two-fold  purpose  of  escaping  oppression  and  securing 
pecuniary  and  other  advantages;  judging  that  to  be  the 
shorter  and  more  peaceable  way  of  securing  their  rights. 
Our  eastern  people  meet  with  difficulties  in  the  land  of  their 
birth,  which  in  their  judgment  can  most  effectually  be  over 
come  by  emigrating  to  the  west.  And  it  is  best  it  should 
be  so ;  for  were  it  otherwise  a  great  portion  of  the  earth 
would  be  uninhabited  and  the  valley  of  Ararat  the  burying 
ground  of  the  human  race.  The  scheme  we  advocate  has 
often  been  charged  with  oppression  and  driving  the  colored 
people  away  because  their  circumstances  are  rendered  so 
intolerable  here  that  they  choose  emigration  in  preference  to 
endurance.  Let  us  inquire  into  this.  Colonization  encou 
rages  their  emigration  because  they  are  oppressed  in  their 
present  circumstances;  therefore  Colonization  drives  them 
away  and  is  an  oppressive  institution.  Will  these  logicians 
apply  this  reasoning  to  those  who  encourage  the  escape  of 
slaves  to  Canada? 

The  deplorable  fact  is  readily  admitted,  and  will  be  in 
dignantly  maintained  by  every   consistant  Colonizationist 


12  CONDITION   Off    THE 

that  there  is  unrighteous  and  inexcusable  oppression  and 
abuse  practised  on  the  colored  people  both  bond  and  free  j 
but  the  association  is  as  incapable  of  correcting  these  abuses 
as  the  colored  man  himself.     And  it  is  a  fact  too,  that  there 
are  serious  embarrassments  under  which  the  colored  man  la 
bors  in  his  present  relation  consequent  on  treatment  for  which 
the  white  man  will  not  stand  reproved.     Men  will  hardly 
be  driven  or  persuaded  to  give  up  their  right  to  the  exer 
cise  of  choice  in  all  their  associations,  as  well  as  their  ope 
rations  and  pursuits.     In  social  visits,  parties  or  entertain 
ments;    as  partners  in  rest,  seats,  walks,  rides;  or  business 
as  correspondents,  confidents  or  companions ;  in  these  and 
numerous  other  relations ;  propositions  will  be  made,  ac 
cepted  or  declined  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  taste. 
And  what  ever  peculiarity  exists  in  any,  the  offence  of  which 
would  counterbalance  the    proffit  or  delight  the  occasion 
would  afford,  these  peculiarities  will  produce  a  disinclina 
tion  either  to  proffer  or  accept  such  solicitations ;  and  it  will 
be  so  far  only  as  taste  or  choice  is  reciprocal,  that  inter 
course  and  familiarity  will  be  agreeable.     The  same  right 
will  also  be  claimed  in  the  support  of  candidates  for  stations 
and  offices,  in  the  various  departments  of  letters,  morals,  and 
politics.     Very  few  perhaps  will  prefer  a  person  of  color? 
other  things  being  equal,  and  the  day  is  doubtless  far  dis 
tant  when  there  will  not  be  a  superabundance  of  our  own 
complexion  as  well  qualified,  to  fill  every  station  private, 
social,  and  public.     Nor  does  it  necessarily  follow  that  be 
cause  we  prefer  our  own  complexion  as  associates,  compani 
ons,  guides,  and  rulers,  we  therefore  hate  or  despise  the 
people  of  color.     His  complexion  may  be  innocently  re 
garded  as  a  misfortune  which,  though  it  would  not  disquali- 


FREE  COLORED.  13" 

fy  him  for  the  office  proposed,  it  nevertheless  renders  him 
less  acceptable  than  one  unencumbered  with  this  defect. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  friend  to  flatter  with  delusive  hopes, 
However  fond  the  expectation  of  the  Africo  American  may 
be,  of  being  elevated  in  this  land  to  a  level  with  his  white 
neighbors,  the  expectation  must  perish. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  the  eye  of  the  observer,  that  very 
few  of  the  colored  people  possess  real  estate ;  and  as  they 
bave  not  accustomed  themselves  to  agricultural  pursuits, 
they  gather  into  cities  and  villages  and  the  labor  they  per 
form  is  almost  exclusively  servitude.  This  renders  their 
condition  still  more  embarrassing ;  by  keeping  them  poor, 
consequently  ignorant  and  more  liable  to  temptation . 

This  relation  has  been  urged  against  their  removal  "  they 
are  needed  among  us  j"  is  the  sordid  plea,  not  of  the  true 
friend  of  the  negro.  It  would  be  quite  as  convenient  to  the 
friends  of  Colonization  as  for  others  to  keep  them  at  hard 
labor,  in  poverty  and  ignorance,  smothering  their  gifts,  bury 
ing  their  talents — it  is  consistent  enough  with  selfishness 
to  keep  them  in  servitude  and  vassalage,  to  the  indulgence 
of  our  ease,  and  the  increase  of  our  wealth.  If  the  point 
at  issue  were  the  pecuniary  interests  of  the  whites,  we 
would  give  up  the  position  as  untenable  or  at  best  as  not 
worth  defending. 

Another  source  of  embarrassment  under  which  the  color 
ed  people  labor  is,  the  utter  want  of  a  national  cha 
racter.  They  do  not  respect  one  another.  Hence  if  one 
rises  by  prosperity  or  education,  he  holds  his  own  people 
in  utter  contempt,  is  more  rigorous  then  white  men,  more  in 
tolerant  and  cruel  as  an  overseer,  and  if  possible  more  than 
white  men  disdains  to  associate  with  them.  He  has  nothing 
to  hope  from  their  suffrage  or  from  any  familiarity  with  them; 


14  CONDITION    OP    THE    FREE    COLORED. 

as  a  people  therefore,  there  is  little  aside  from  the  awful  rela 
tionship  of  degradation  that  can  serve  as  a  bond  of  union. 

As  yet  those  who  are  educated  among  them  are  the  most 
dissatisfied  with  their  condition,  the  most  solitary  and  gloo 
my,  the  most  melancholy  and  dejected ;  because,  they  see 
more  clearly  and  feel  more  keenly  their  degradation ;  be 
cause  they  have  a  strong  aversion  to  mingling  with  the  com 
mon  mass  of  colored  people,  have  but  here  and  there  one 
on  a  level  with  themselves  among  them,  and  therefore  theirs 
is  a  condition  nearly  allied  to  solitary  confinement;  which 
hurries  them  in  the  midst  of  life  down  to  death.  I  have 
never  known  a  colored  man  of  education  and  refinement  to 
survive  the  age  of  57. 

It  has  been  stated,  that  the  Rev,  Dr.  Finley,  who  devised 
the  scheme  of  African  Colonization,  was  one  of  those  active 
and  devoted  anti-slavery  men  who  labored  indefatigably  for 
the  emancipation  of  slavery  in  the  Northern  States.  Among 
his  correspondents  and  advisers  were  Mills,  Caldwell,  Mar 
shall,  Jefferson,  Monroe,  besides  many  ministerial  gentle 
men  who  with  himself  deeply  deplored  the  existence  of 
that  evil,  and  who  with  himself  therefore  were  beyond  all 
suspicion  of  any  connivance  with  the  advocates  of  that  in 
stitution. 

Besides  the  well  known  anti-slavery  principles  of  its  foun 
der  and  his  advisers,  the  arguments  urged  in  its  support 
when  the  adoption  of  the  constituion  was  a  subject  of  debate 
show,  that  the  cause  of  the  slave  was  not  overlooked.  A 
powerful  appeal  was  made  on  the  ground  that  there  were 
"two  millions  of  slaves  then  in  the  United  States  besides 
two  hundred  thousand  free  colored  people."  See  African 
Repository,  February,  1844 
«  Once  demonstrate  that  the  colored  man  is  capable  of  self-government 


INFLUENCE    OP    COLONIZATION    ON    SLAVERY.  15 

and  you  create  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  sla 
very."  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

It  is  true  that  slave  holders  have  approved  and  greatly 
advanced  the  institution  and  perhaps  some  of  them  from 
motives  of  selfishness.  Reasoning  that  "  if  the  free  color 
ed  people  were  removed,  our  slaves  will  be  more  quiet; 
and  even  if  my  neighboring  planters  are  prevailed  on  to  send 
their  slaves,  mine  will  be  the  more  valuable."  It  was  origi 
nally  the  design  of  the  undertaking  to  send  over  as  pioneers 
to  Africa  free  people  of  color,  as  it  was  supposed  among 
them  might  be  found  persons  of  more  resolution  and  entei- 
prise  ;  and  knowing  too,  as  Marshall  intimates,  that  slave  hol 
ders  must  be  convinced  that  the  negro  is  capable  of  self  go 
vernment  ere  they  would  consent  to  emancipate.  The  ex 
pectation  was  therefore  indulged,  that  when  the  slave  hol 
ding  community  was  satisfied  that  the  condition  of  the  slave 
would  be  improved  the  work  of  emancipation  would  keep 
pace  in  advance  of  Colonization  operations.  The  correct 
ness  of  this  opinion  will  appear  from  the  following  facts. 

John  McDonough  of  New  Orleans,  sent  during  the  year 
1842,  79  slaves  at  his  own  expense  to  Liberia. 

For  fifteen  years  he  had  been  instructing  them  in  science, 
arts,  and  domestic  economy,  and  preparing  them  for  the  use 
of  civil  liberty,  and  the  testimony  given  to  the  success  of 
his  efforts  is,  that  such  a  company  of  slaves  was  never 
known  in  the  state  of  Louisiana.  Industrious,  intelligent, 
pious,  they  have  gone  to  the  land  of  the  free,  to  hand  down 
like  the  pilgrim  fathers,  their  influence  to  future  generations. 
Mr.  M.  was  offered  about  nine  months  before  their  depar 
ture  $2,500  for  a  single  individual,  but  he  assured  his  ap 
plicant  for  human  bodies  and  souls  that  no  money  would 
purchase  him. 


16  INFLUENCE    OP   COLONIZATION 

Mr.  Brown  of  Nashville  Tennessee,  offers  all  his  slaves, 
68  in  number  for  emigration;  and  is  desirous  they  should 
be  taken  before  his  death,  lest  at  his  decease  they  fall  into 
the  hands  of  one  who  is  opposed  to  emancipation. 

A  gentleman  of  wealth  in  South  Carolina  on  hearing  a 
lecture  by  the  Rev.  R.  R.  Gurley,  resolved  to  prepare  his 
slaves  for  freedom.  Forthwith  he  selected  four  of  the  like 
liest  of  his  slaves  of  twelve  years  of  age  took  them  into  his 
family  and  iustructed  them  for  two  years  and  placed  them  as 
teachers  of  the  rest.  For  five  years  he  has  been  sedulously 
pursuing  his  plan,  and  this  year  1844  intends  settling  them 
all  in  their  father  land.  Seventeen  other  planters  in  South 
Carolina  who  own  about  3500  slaves  induced  by  this  ex 
ample  are  pursuing  similar  plans,  while  the  principle  is  ef 
fectually  operating  on  minds  too  noble  to  resist  its  force. 

A  young  gentleman  in  Lynchbury  Virginia,  has  liberated 
his  slaves,  and  has  advanced  funds  to  provide  for  them  a 
passage  and  outfit.  And  a  gentleman  connected  with  the 
society  who  has  travelled  for  that  purpose  has  ascertained 
to  his  satisfaction  that  10,000  are  now  being  fitted  for  emi 
gration  at  the  expense  of  their  masters — and  2,000  are  ready 
and  waiting  to  embark  when  funds  sufficient  shall  have  been 
raised  by  the  society  for  that  purpose. 

The  improvement  the  emigrants  have  made,  exceeds  the 
most  sanguine  hopes  of  the  first  supporters  of  this  institution. 
There  are  to  be  found  statesmen,  scholars,  and  divines, 
who  would  suffer  little  in  comparison  with  the  same  classes 
of  men  in  this  and  other  civilized  countries,  who  have  been 
raised  up  from  the  lowest  degradation  in  this  land.  Agri 
culture  and  the  mechanic  arts  are  flourishing,  and  a- lucra 
tive  trade  is  carried  on  with  most  of  the  enlightened  nations, 
and  as  the  reward  of  industry  and  virtue,  peace  and  plenty, 


ON   SLAVERY.  17 

are  sweetly  enjoyed,  and  a  knowledge  of  this  prosperous 
and  happy  state  of  things,  cannot  fail  to  incline  the  true 
friends  of  the  afflicted  colored  people  to  promote  the  inter 
ests  of  this  institution  and  to  induce  the  colored  people  them 
selves  to  accept  the  proffered  benefits. 

The  reader  may  have  seen  a  few  numbers  of  an  unfinish 
ed  work  now  going  through  the  press  entitled  "  Wander 
ings  in  Africa."  It  is  not  our  intention  to  review  that  work, 
but  that  he  see  that  men  as  equally  capable  of  judging  and 
whose  varacity  stands  unimpeached  have  judged  very  dif 
ferently  on  some  important  points,  we  shall  subjoin 'a  few 
statements  copied  from  the  "African  Repository. 

In  September  1827,  the  inhabitants  of  Monrovia  assem 
bled  and  adopted  an  address  to  their  brethren  in  the  United 
States.  'On  the  subject  of  the  country  they  say: 

"  Away  with  all  the  false  notions  that  are  circulating  about  the  bar 
renness  of  this  country:  they  are  the  observations  of  such  ignorant 
and  designing  men,  as  would  injure  both  it  and  you.  A  more  fertile 
soil,  and  a  more  productive  country,  so  far  as  it  is  cultivated,  there  is 
not,  we  believe,  on  the  face  of  the  earth." 

Captain  Nicholson  after  a  visit  to  the  Colony  early  in 
1828,  on  his  return  wrote  : 

"  The  soil  in  the  possession  of  the  colonists  is  rich,  and  will  produce 
n  superabundance  for  the  support  of  the  colony,  as  well  as  for  extern 
al  commerce.  Sugar,  cotton,  coffee,  rice,  and  various  trees  and  plants, 
yielding  valuable  dyes,  and  medicinal  gums,  can  be  cultivated  with 

success." 

The  Rev.  G.  W.  McElroy,  an  intelligent  and  highly  re 
spected  clergyman  from  Kentucky,  visited  Liberia  in  1835. 
His  public  testimony  concerning  the  country,  is  given  in 
the  following  wo^ds  : 

"  As  to  the  soil  of  Liberia,  I  can  truly  say  it  is  not  surpassed  if 
equalled,  in  fertility,  by  the  richest  lands  of  the  States.  I  speak  ad 
visedly,  when  I  say  this,  for  I  have  cultivated  and  travelled  over  some 
of  our  finest  lands  in  several  of  the  western  and  middle  States.  I  have 
seen  the  full  stock  of  corn  in  Kentucky,  and  the  waving  white  fields 
of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  ;  I  have  trodden  the  rice  lands"  of  Georgia 
and  the  cotton  lands  of  the  Carolinas,  and  in  the  same  year  I  have 


18  LIBERIA. 

seen  the  golden  fruits  of  Africa.  On  the  tanks  of  the  St.  Paul  I  saw 
the  waving  millet,  the  luxuriant  plantain  sand  the  abundant  cassada, 
the  sweet  potatoe  and  the  growing  rice ;  and  I  must  say,  the  contrast 
which  I  was  thus  enabled  to  make,  led  me  to  the  conviction  that  with 
equal  skill  and  cultivation,  the  land  of  Liberia,  would  bear  a  favorable 
comparison  with  those  of  our  or  any  other  country." 

Dr.  Todsen,  who  resided  several  years  in  the  colony, 
says  : 

"The  soil  of  Liberia,  with  the  exception  of  Cape  Mesurado,  on 
which  Monrovia  is  built,  is,  in  richness  and  fertility,  equal  to  some  of 
the  finest  lands  I  have  ever  seen,  either  in  Europe  or  America.  In 
fact,  there  are  few  spots  on  the  globe  that  present  so  inexhaustible  a 
soil,  so  luxuriant  a  vegetation,  even  unassisted  by  the  industry  of  man, 
as  that  of  the  rivers  St.  Paul,  St.  John,  Mesuiado,  and  the  Stockton 
Creek.  Many  of  the  productions  of  tropical  climates,  such  as  coflee, 
a  variety  of  the  finest  spices,  valuable  woods,  and  dye-stuffs,  grow 
there  spontaneously  :  and  it  would  only  require  a  small  share  of  atten 
tion  and  industry,  to  bring  them  to  a  state  of  perfection  and  pro 
ductiveness.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  culture  of  tobacco  would  prove 
very  successful  in  the  colony ;  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
finer  qualities  of  that  herb  might  be  successfully  transplanted  from  Ha- 
vanna,  and  thus  become  a  new  and  most  profitable  source  of  wealth  to 
the  colonist.  *  *  *  The  soil  along  the  above  rivers  is  well  adap 
ted,  also,  to  the  culture  of  cotton  and  the  sugar-cane.  *  *  *  The 
forests  abound  in  rare  and  valuable  woods  and  seeds :  no  where  can 
rice,  cassada,  yams,  groundnuts,  Indian  corn,  sweet  potatoes,  and 
plantains,  be  cultivated  to  greater  advantage  than  on  those  courses. 
All  the  domestic  animals  and  fowls  (horses  excepted)  of  America, 
thrive  and  increase  in  the  colony,  with  scarcely  any  care  to  their 
owners,  particularly  goats,  sheep  and  hogs."  He  also  mentions  "or 
anges,  limes,  and  pine-apples  as  abundant ;  and  that  arrowroot  in  great 
quantities  might  be  profitably  raised  for  exportation." 

Dr.  Gould,  who  visited  Liberia  in  1835,  says  : 

"  A  proper  attention  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  would  soon  place 
the  colony  in  a  most  flourishing  and  happy  condition.  The  soil, 
though  apparently  of  the  same  quality  of  the  Maryland  good  lands, 
seems,  nevertheless,  to  be  much  more  productive  ;  and  being  remarka 
bly  easy  of  cultivation,  would  soon  return  a  rich  reward  to  industri 
ous  farmers.  Cotton,  sugar-cane,  coffee,  tobacco,  and  a  variety  of 
other  articles  of  commerce,  may  be  cultivated  to  almost  any  extent." 

Dr.  Goheen,  physician  to  the  Methodist  mission  in  the 
colony,  wrote  in  1838  : 

"Here  are  those  who  enjoy  wealth  and  live  at  ease;  here  the  in 
habitants  enjoy  all  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  a  soil  the  most  fertile, 
well  watered  and  best  timbered,  I  have  ever  seen." 


LIBERIA.  IS 

Dr.  Blodgett,  after  visiting  the  colony  the  same  year, 
testifies  : 

"The  soil,  after  leaving  the  beach  one  or  two  miles,  becomes  very 
fertile^  and  will  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  same  lands  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi.  In  short  the  country  wants  nothing  but  indus 
try  to  make  it  a  place  of  delightful  residence." 

The  Rev.  John  Seys,  superintendent  of  the  Methodist 
mission  in  Liberia,  on  his  return  from  Africa  in  1835,  said  : 

"That  the  soil  of  Liberia  contained  a  mine  ofexhnustless  wealth  to 
the  colonists.  It  was  well  adapted  to  the  culture  of  the  sugar-cane. 
He  knew  all  about  the  culture  of  sugar;  and  he  had  examined  the  soil 
of  Liberia,  and  this  was  his  settled  opinion.  It  wanted  nothing  but 
cultivation,  and  it  would  repay  the  labor  of  the  agriculturist  ten-fold. 
He  here  publicly  declared  it  as  his  judgment,  thaUf  the  Society  would 
raise  and  put  into  the  hands  of  an  agent,  the  sum  of  $10,000,  to  be  laid 
out  in  the  culture  of  sugar,  it  would  clear  all  expenses,  and  in  five 
years  would  nett  a  profit  of  $100,000.  This  might  sound  chimerical, 
but  he  knew  what  he  was  saying.  He  had  gone  carefully  into  the 
calculation,  allowing  largely  for  all  expenses,  and  this  was  the  result. 
The  lands  of  the  colony  contained  the  means  not  only  of  rendering  the 
colonists  easy  in  circumstance?,  but  of  enriching  them  with  every  thing 
that  could  render  life  desirable." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Skinner,  (once  colonial  physician,  and 
subsequently  governor,)  at  the  same  time,  went  on  to  give; 

"  His  fullest  sanction  to  the  statements  which  had  been  made  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Seys;  so  rich  was  the  soil  and  so  abundant  the  means  of 
living,  that  two  hours'  labor  out  of  the  twenty-four,  would  furnish  a 
man  with  all  the  comforts  of  life." 

In  1832,  two  respected  free  colored  men  (Messrs.  Simpson  and 
Moore)  wentfrom  Mississippi  to  the  colony  and  remained  three  weeks, 
examining  all  the  settlements.  They  became  satisfied  with  the  coun 
try,  and  soon  after  their  return  emigrated  thither  with  their  friends. 
In  their  report  they  say  : 

"The  soil  at  Caldwell  and  Millsburg  is  as  fertile  as  we  ever  saw, 
and  much  like  the  land  in  Mississippi.  We  saw  growing  upon  it, 
pepper,  corn,  rice,  sugar-cane,  cassada,  plantains,  cotton,  oranges, 
limes,  coffee,  peas,  beans,  sweet  potatoes,  water-melons,  cucumbers, 
sousop,  bananas,  and  many  other  fruits  and  vegetables." 

Captain  Crowell,  of  Massachusetts,  who  visited  the  colo 
ny  the  same  year,  after  mentioning  other  blessings,  says: 

"  To  these  advantages  may  be  added  that  of  a  most  rich  and  prom  > 
ising  soil,  well  adapted  to  the  culture  of  all  the  tropical  productions." 

Captain  Vorhees,  of  the  IT.  S.  Shin  John  Adam?,  touch- 


20  LIBERIA 

ed  at  Liberia  in  December,  1833.     In  his  report  to  the  Sec- 
retary  of  the  Navy,  from  that  place,  he  states  : 

"The  country  is  fertile  and  productive  of  every  variety  of  sustenance 
necessary  to  man ;  and  no  settler,  however  poor,  with  industry  and 
frugality,  after  a  year's  support  need  to  be  in  want.  The  settlement 
must  move  onward,  and,  with  all  its  disadvantages,  it  appears  a  mira 
cle  that  it  should  be  in  such  a  state  of  advancement." 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Pinney,  first  a  missionary  and  subsequent 
ly  governor  of  Liberia,  wrote  in  1835  : 

"  We  shall  triumph.  The  advantages  of  soil  and  products  and  free 
dom  which  exist  in  Liberia,  will,  when  prejudice  yields  to  sober  rea 
son,  induce  the  high-minded  and  enterprizing  men  of  color  in  Ameri 
ca,  to  emigrate  on  their  own  resources.  The  crops  of  arrowroot,  cof 
fee,  pepper,  and  cotton,  exceed  all  that  can  be  b&asted  of  in  the  Uni 
ted  States.  *  *  *  By  a  very  careless  trial  of  arrowroot,  it  is  as 
certained  that  at  ten  cents  per  pound,  the  land  will,  with  very  little 
trouble,  produce  at  the  rate  of  $100  per  acre:  and  so  of  other  crops, 
sugar-cane,  coffee,  and  cotton." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Rockwell  gives  an  extended  and  minute 
account  not  only  of  the  productions  of  the  colony,  but  of 
the  character,  manners,  and  condition  of  the  settlers,  (copi 
ous  extracts  from  which  will  be  found  in  this  Journal  for 
August  and  September,  1842  ;)  but  one  fact  dropped  inci 
dentally  we  cannot  forbear  to  mention.  He  observes  : 

"  Sweet  potatoes  will  grow  every  season  of  the  year.  *  * 
They  were  brought  to  us  by  the  colonists  in  canoes,  some  of 
them  twenty  miles  from  the  coast;  and  in  such  abundance 
were  they  offered  us,  that,  though  we  supplied  our  crew  of 
nearly  five  hundred  men  with  them,  yet  many  more  were 
brought  to  us  than  we  could  furnish  a  market  for."* 

*  Dr.  Bacon,  though  he  represents  African  diseases  as  easily  curable, 
refers  to  the  mortality  among  emigrants  as  justifying  the  severest  con 
demnation  against  the  conductors  of  the  Colonization  scheme.  On 
this  point  we  state  two  facts : 

1st.  For  some  time  past  the  births  in  the  Cape  Palmas  colony  have 
exceeded  the  deaths,  and  the  mortality  has  been  less,  than  among  the 
free  blacks  of  Baltimore :  and 

Secondly  ;  We  notice  an  incidental  remark  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rock 
well,  who,  in  urging  the  importance  of  persons  emigrating  in  the  prime 
of  life,  says  :  (f  Children  of  such  parents,  too,  if  born  in  Africa,  will 


LIBERIA.  21 

[Compare  the  statements  of  Mr.  Rockwell,  in  his 
*'  Sketches  of  foreign  travel  and  life  at  sea,"  with  those  of 
Dr.  D.  F.  Bacon,  in  his  "  Wanderings  on  the  seas  and  shores 
of  Africa  "  as  both  authors  were  in  Liberia  about  the  same 
time.] 

The  late  Governor  Buchanan,  on  his  arrival  in  the  colony 
in  1836,wrote  : 

"  Liberia  far  exceeds,  in  almost  every  respect,  all  that  I  had  ever 
imagined  of  her.  Nothing  is  wanted,  I  am  persuaded,  but  a  better 
system  of  agriculture,  and  the  permanent  establishment  of  schools,  to 
bring  the  people  of  Liberia  to  the  very  highest  point  of  the  scale  of 
intellectual  refinement  and  political  consequence." 

This  same  gentleman  in  his  despatch  of  the  13th  of  De 
cember,  1840,  reported  7,205  coffee  trees  growing  in  Mon 
rovia  and  the  adjacent  villages,  and  23,000  in  the  three  set 
tlements  of  Bassa  Cove,  Edina,  and  Bexley.  At  the  close 
of  that  month,  premiums  were  awarded  for  the  cultivation 
of  coffee  trees  to 

S.  Benedict,  for  3,060  treea. 

James  Moore,  for  3,300     " 

Lewis  Sheriden,  for  -  3,000     " 

Samuel  Claborn,  for  2,000     " 

Under  date  of  August  2,  1842,  Dr.  J.  Lawrence  Day, 
colonial  physician,  after  mentioning  the  efforts  of  Mr. 
Jenckes,  (a  white  man  from  the  United  States,)  in  the  cul 
tivation  of  the  sugar  cane,  observes  : 

"The  good  he  did, lives  after  him.  *  *  *  He  has  demonstrated 
too,  what  was  hitherto  a  problem,  viz :  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  soil 
or  atmosphere,  that  will  prevent  our  making,  with  the  least  kind  of 
care,  as  good,  as  much,  and,  (with  the  same  means  of  grinding,)  as 

be  much  better  adapted  to  the  peculiar  climate  of  that  country,  than 
those  who  even  at  an  early  age  remove  thither.  Hence  it  is,  that  at 
Monrovia,  with  a  population  [this  was  six  years  ago]  of  six  or  eight 
hundred  inhabitants,  there  may  now  be  seen  a  hundred  fine,  healthy 
boys,  children  of  the  colonists,  engaged  in  their  evening  gambols  in  the 
•treats." 


22  LIBERIA. 

cheap  sugar  as  is  made  in  the  West  Indies.  Three  thousand  pounds 
of  sugar,  and  several  hundred  gallons  of  molasses  were  manufactured 
during  the  last  season,  at  the  colonial  farm ;  and  but  for  a  defect  (to 
be  easily  remedied  hereafter)  in  the  grinding  of  the  cane,  this  quantity 
would  have  been  doubled." 

Dr.  James  Hall,  (a  gentleman  of  the  most  accurate  ob 
servation  and  sound  judgment,  who  has  resided  eleven 
years  in  Liberia,)  says  : 

"She,  Africa,  possesses  the  soil,  the  climate, the  physical  force  and 
only  requires  capital  and  intellect  to  enable  her  to  flood  the  world 
with  those  tropical  productions  which  have  for  the  past  century  been 
so  eagerly  sought  in  the  rocky  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  and  which 
have  been  there  produced  'at  such  a  sacrifice  of  human  life  and  human 
happiness." 

Of  coffee  and  the  sugar  cane  Dr.  Hall  says  : 

"Both  of  these  products  are  indigenous  to  Africa.  The  former,  of 
the  most  perfect  species,  is  found  in  abundance  in  the  forest,  and  only 
requires  transplanting,  in  order  to  yield  at  least  one  hundred  per  cent, 
more  than  the  most  prolific  species  cultivated  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  sugar  cane  now  growing  on  the  public  farm  in  Cape  Palmas,  is 
equal  in  size  and  weight  to  that  produced  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
and  is  capable  of  being  cultivated  to  any  extent  in  every  variety  of 
soil  throughout  the  colony." 

After  mentioning  the  cheapness  of  land,  of  rice  and  of 
labor,  Dr.  Hall  adds  : 

"  And  in  fact,  every  facility  exists  for  carrying  on  operations  for  the 
production  of  sugar  and  coffee  at  a  less  expense  than  it  can  be  done  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  requiring  less  than  one  tenth  the  amount  of  capi 
tal — the  whole  expense  of  labor  not  exceeding  the  interest  on  the  mo 
ney  required  for  slave  labor." 

Such  is  a  portion  of  the  testimony,  decided  and  unequi 
vocal,  gathered  from  various,  intelligent  and  respectable  in 
dividuals,  several  of  them  in  no  way  connected  with  the 
Colonization  Society,  most  of  them,  if  not  all,  men  of  un- 
impeached  and  unsullied  honor  and  veracity.  Such  testi 
mony  is  not  to  be  invalidated  by  any  single  witness,  cer 
tainly  not  by  one  visiting  the  colony  from  motives  of  curi 
osity,  or  an  excentric  humor,  yet  availing  himself  of  the 
Society's  patronage,  and  who,  while  entrusted  with  a  com 
mission  as  principal  colonial  physician,  with  a  salary  of 


LIBERIA.  23 

61,600  per  annum,  stated  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Society, 
that  in  consequence  of  one  of  the  emigrants  having  landed 
contrary  to  his  and  the  Governor's  orders,  and  used  some 
insulting  language,  and  repeated  it  in  company  with  some 
of  his  friends,  he  had  at  first  concluded  not  again  to  land, 
but  to  return  in  the  same  vessel  to  the  United  States.     This 
sudden  and  extraordinary  determination   of  the  author  of 
4'  Wanderings  on  the  seas  and  shores  of  Africa,"  from  which 
he  informs  us  he  was  turned  by  the  apologies,  representa 
tions,  entreaties  and  promises  of  several  of  the  colonial  gen 
tlemen,  and  especially  by  the  advice  of  Dr.  Hall,  who  hap 
pened  to  arrive  at  that  time,  was  certainly  less  wonderful 
than  his  no  less  sudden  renunciation  of  all  idea  of  effecting 
any  thing  whatever  under  the  powers  he  conceived  him 
self  clothed  with,  as  to   "  medical  police,"  so  that,  (to  use 
his  own  words,)  "  I  abandoned  all  hopes  and  plans  of  sa 
ving  life  by  prevention  of  exposures,  and  determined  to  go 
on  shore  as  a  mere  medical  practitioner,  and  satisfied  that 
a  brace  of  pocket  pistols  and  a  sword-cane  would  be  a  suffi 
cient  remedy  for  any  repetition  of  my  first  difficulties,  [hav 
ing]  assured  the  Governor  that  I  should  use  them  on  the  first 
man  that  insulted  or  threatened  me  in  the  discharge  of  my 
duty"     The   difficulties  of  our  friend,  the  Wanderer,  ap 
pear  theieafter  to  have   rapidly  increased  ;  and  having  on 
two  occasions  "  defined  his  position,"  and  forcibly  compel 
led  obstinate  patients  to  take  his  medicines  with  happy  ef 
fect,  in  one  case,  upon  the  disposition  as  well  as  upon  the 
health  ;  (for  the  man  on  recovery  became  his  devoted  friend, 
and  "  his  regard  dated,"  says  our  author,  "  from  this  one 
moderate  drubbing.")     He  makes  the  following  sage  re 
flections  : 

"  Such  are  '  niggers,'  in  the  peculiar  American  sense  of  that  Ameri 
can  form  of  the  word  j  such  are  they  under  kind  treatment,  and  such 


LIBERIA. 

are  they  under  the  opposite.  I  do  not  use  the  word  <  nigger'  as  sy 
nonymous  with  <  negro.'  If  the  latter  is  taken  as  a  specific  term,  the 
former  then  expresses  a  peculiar  artificial  sub-variety  of  that  species 
induced  by  cultivation.  The  latter  is  what  the  former  has  become  by 
slavery,  and  may  be  morally  denned  and  characterized  as  a  creature 
with  some  of  the  inferior  virtues  of  a  good  dog  and  all  the  meanest  vice* 
of  a  bad  man.'} 

Without  attempting  here  to  review  the  unfinished  work 
of  Dr.  Bacon,  we  suggest  that  the  preceding  sentence  may 
explain  many  of  its  dark  surmisings,  discouraging  conjec 
tures,  unpromising  predictions,  and  strange  and  extraordi 
nary  statements.  A  white  man  in  Liberia  acting  upon  the 
opinion  of  the  Doctor,  could  hardly  expect,  were  this  opin 
ion  correct,  to  find  it  concurred  in  by  the  people,  and  if 
an  error,  must  impute  his  exemption  from  manifestations  of 
public  indignation,  either  to  eminent  virtue  and  forbearance 
in  the  community,  or  to  some  remarkable  protection  of 
Providence. 

But  the  inquiry  may  be  natural,  why,  if  the  fertility  of 
the  Liberian  soil  be  great,  and  its  productions  such  as  have: 
been  represented,  why  so  few,  if  any,  have  been  brought 
into  the  markets  of  the  world  ]  The  answer  is  obvious. 
The  emigrants  have  generally  gone  out  with  little  or  no 
property  ;  they  have  received  but  very  limited  assistance  ; 
have  been  compelled  to  engage  in  the  construction  of  their 
houses,  the  clearing  of  the  lands,  in  the  culture  of  such  veg 
etables  as  were  most  necessary  for  their  immediate  subsis 
tence,  and  such  barter  trade  with  the  natives  as  might  give 
them  the  most  speedy  and  profitable  returns.  In  a  new 
and  uncivilized  country,  exposed  to  the  trials  of  a  tropical 
climate,  and  in  their  earliest  settlement  not  unfrequently  to 
the  hostility  of  the  native  barbarous  tribes,  they  have  di 
rected,  of  necessity,  their  principal  energies  to  securo 
shelter,  security  and  subsistence.  No  rich  capitalists 


LIBERIA.  25 


been  there  ;  no  treasured  commodities  of  all  climes ;  no 
labor-saving  machines  ;  and  but  very  imperfect  knowledge, 
and  scarcely  any  experience  of  the  cultivation  of  the  choi 
cest  productions  of  the  tropics.  Our  wonder  is  not  that 
they  have  done  so  little,  but  that  they  have  done  so  much. 

"  Monrovia,  (says  Mr.  Rockwell,  writing  some  six  years  ago.)  was 
the  first  and  is  the  largest  settlement,  containing  about  five  hundred 
houses,  five  churches,  several  schools,  besides  being  the  seat  of  the 
Colonial  Government.  We  were  everywhere  hospitably  received,  ta 
king  our  seats  with  the  colonists  at  their  tables ;  uniting  with  them  in 
a  public  dinner  they  gave  us  on  shore,  and  entertaining  them  and  their 
ladies  on  board  our  ship.  The  houses  of  the  wealthier  are  two  stories 
high,  of  a  good  size,  and  with  drawing-rooms  furnished  with  sofas 
sideboards,  and  other  articles  of  luxury  and  ease.  Most  of  the  colo 
nists,  however,  live  in  houses  of  a  story  and  a  half  high,  framed  and 
covered  as  in  New  England,  and  having  besides  the  chambers,  small 
but  convenient  rooms  on  the  lower  floor,  while  the  cooking  is  com 
monly  done,  as  in  the  southern  United  States,  in  cabins  distinct  from 
the  house,  to  avoid  the  annoyance  of  smoke  and  heat." 

The  same  respectable  author — from  whom  we  quote  be 
cause  he  visited  the  colony  a  short  time  before  the  arrival 
of  the  "  Wanderer  on  the  seas  and  shores  of  Africa"— 
speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Georgia,  a  settlement 
of  recaptured  Africans,  says  : 

"  These  settlers  are  active,  industrious  farmers,  and  are  fast  acqui 
ring  a  knowledge  of  the  useful  arts,  and  securing  to  themselves  the 
blessings  of  civilization  and  Christianity.  But  a  few  years  since  and 
they  were  sunk  in  the  beastly  degredation  of  paganism,  knowing  no 
thing  of  the  language  in  which  they  have  received  all  the  education 
and  religious  instruction  they  have  enjoyed.  Now  they  have  a  town , 
regularly  laid  out,  the  streets  and  houses  are  extremely  clean  and  neat 
while  all  around  them  is  an  appearance  of  thrift,  and  of  thorough  and 
successful  cultivation  of  the  soil,  which  is  truly  surprising,  if  we  con 
sider  how  recently  the  inhabitants  have  emerged  from  the  indolent 
and  unsettled  habits  of  savage  and  barbarous  life." 

Again  says  Mr.  Rockwell : 

"On  the  St.  Paul's  river,  commences  the  town  of  Caldwell,  which 
is  seven  miles  in  length,  each  farmer  having  a  given  width  on  the 
river,  and  besides  this  town  lot,  ten  acres  lying  further  back.  The 
land  is  thoroughly  cleared,  and  in  a  good  state  of  cultivation,  for  five 
or  six  miles  in  length,  and  from  one-fourth  to  half  a  mile  in  width," 
Of  Millsburgh  he  says  : 


26  LIBERIA. 

"  The  situation  of  the  town  is  peculiarly  pleasant ;  its  principal 
streets,  like  those  of  Monrovia  and  Caldwell,  running  parallel  to  the 
banks  of  the  river,  the  rising  grounds  around,  being  covered  with  lofty 
forest  trees  of  the  richest  foliage  ;  while,  at  one  extremity  of  the  vil 
lage,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  grass-covered  hillocks  I  have  ever 
seen.  The  inhabitants  are  mostly  hardy  and  industrious  farmers,  and 
though  reared  in  America,  we  were  surprised  to  learn  that  they  en 
joyed  better  health  than  they  had  done  in  the  United  States,  and  that 
they  could  endure  more  fatigue  and  hard  labor,  than  1he  native  Afri 
cans  around  them." 

Of  the  settlement  at  Bassa  Cove,  then  but  three  years 
old,  having  stated  that  it  was  founded  by  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  emigrants  directly  from  the  United  States,  Mr, 
Rockwell  says  : 

"  The  colonists  had  cleared  forty  acres  of  land,  and  besides  erecting 
houses  for  themselves,  and  ten  others  for  future  emigrants,  they  had  a 
bouse  for  the  family  of  the  Agent,  and  a  substantial  Government  house, 
twenty  feet  by  fifty,  and  two  stories  high,  with  a  well-enclosed  and 
beautiful  garden  of  two  acres  annexed  to  it." 

This  had  been  done,  although  the  settlement  had  been 
exposed  to  the  hostility  of  enemies,  and  being  planted  on 
the  principle  of  non-resistance,  entirely  broken  up  at  one 
time,  and  a  number  of  the  inhabitants  massacred.  It  was 
soon  re-commenced  with  the  spirit  and  means  of  resisting 
aggression,  "  Under  this  regimen,"  says  Mr.  Rockwell, 

"  The  colony  has  continued  to  flourish,  furnishing  a  safe  asylum 
for  the  emigrant  and  the  Missionary  of  the  Cross  ;  by  its  treaties  with 
the  natives,  and  by  other  means,  aiding  to  suppress  the  slave-trade, 
and  by  its  schools  and  churches,  and  the  arts  and  comforts  of  civili 
zation  and  Christianity,  strongly  recommending  by  the  force  of  exam 
ple,  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  with  its  train  of  attendant  blessings, 
alike  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Pagan  tribes  uvctmd." 

Of  the  independent  colony  at  Cape  Palmas,  founded  but 
three  years  before,  by  one  hnndred  and  ninety  colored  per 
sons,  under  the  auspices  of  Maryland,  Mr.  Rockwell  states  : 
"There  were  forty-seven  farms  of  five  acres  each,  under  cultivation, 
and  besides  having  commenced  a  public  model  farm  of  fifty  acres,  the 
colonists  had  made  five  miles  of  road  into  the  interior,  and  prepared 
houses  for  the  accomodation  of  two  hundred  more  emigrants." 

These  are  observations  of  the   aspect  and  condition  of 
lungs,  as  we  have  said,  more  than  six  years  ago,  very  near- 


LIBERIA.  27 

ly  at  the  time  to  which  the  sketches  of  "  Wanderings  on 
the  seas  and  shores  of  Africa11  apply.  And  what  is  Mr. 
Rockwell's  testimony  in  regard  to  the  contentment  of  the 

settlers  1 

u  It  has  often  been  said  that  the  colonists  of  Liberia  are  not  con 
tented  with  their  situation,  and  were  they  able  would  gladly  return  to 
this  land.  From  free  intercourse  with  those  of  all  classes  in  the  dif 
ferent  settlements,  and  after  diligent  inquiry  on  the  subject,  however, 
I  was  fully  persuaded  that  there  are  few  communities  in  any  land,  the 
members  of  which  are  more  generally  satisfied  with  their  condition 
than  are  the  great  mass  of  the  colonists.  I  found,  too,  a  decided  pre 
ference  of  Africa  to  America,  in  instances  in  which  I  should  have  ex 
pected  the  contrary  to  have  been  the  fact." 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  up  to  the  period  to  which 

these  last  statements  refer,  trade  had  occupied  mainly  the 
thoughts,  and  principally  contributed  to  the  comforts  and 
prosperity  of  the  colonists,  that  even  in  1832  the  import* 
into  Monrovia  were  to  the  value  of  $80,000,  and  the  ex 
ports  to  that  of  $125,000,  and  that,  though  the  trade  at  this 
point  afterwards  decreased  somewhat,  yet  a  number  of 
small  coasting  vessels  had  been  built  by  the  colonists,  and 
when  Mr.  Rockwell  was  there  fifteen  or  twenty  such  craft 
were  owned  and  navigated  by  them.  Let  it  also  be  remem 
bered,  that  the  early  emigrants  to  Liberia  were  necessarily 
much  occupied  in  public  affairs,  means  of  defence,  military 
discipline,  the  organization  and  administration  of  their  politi 
cal  judicial  and  social  system  ;  in  counteracting  the  agencies 
of  the  slave-trade,  in  occasional  wars,  in  negotiations  with 
African  tribes,  and  finally,  that  each  successive  company  of 
them,  were  obliged,  for  several  months,  to  restrain  them 
selves  from  exertion,  and  acquire  by  inquiry  and  experi 
ment,  the  knowledge,  which  is  only  so  attained,  of  their  du 
ties,  and  methods  and  means  of  living  in  a  new  and  strange 
country.  All  recent  testimony  from  Liberia  shows  that 
agriculture  is  receiving  increased  attention.  In  his  letter 
dated  December  13th,  1840,  Governor  Buchanan  stated: 


28  LIBERIA. 

"  It  should  be  remembered  that  all  the  land  in  cultivation  in  th« 
colony  (about  713  acres)  is  worked  entirely  by  hand.  We  have  made 
a  quantity  of  very  beautiful  sngar  this  season,  though  all  the  work  has 
been  done  at  the  greatest  possible  disadvantage."  Under  date  of 
April  6,  1840,  he  states:  "Business  in  all  its  branches  has  increased 
three-fold,  and  there  is  an  abundance  of  the  products  of  the  earth  in 
the.  colony  for  all  the  wants  of  the  people." 

It  is  some  consolation  to  find  the  "  Wanderer  on  the  seas 
and  shores  of  Africa,"  who  amuses  himself  and  his  readers 
with  some  not  very  successful  attempts  to  exhibit  in  ridicu 
lous  aspects  the  scheme  of  African  Colonization  and  the 
people  and  condition  of  the  colony,  making  admissions  that 
from  an  opponent,  are  confirmations  strong  of  the  fertility 
of  the  soil  and  ample  resources  of  Liberia.  Observe,  also,, 
the  admissions  we  now  cite,  are  from  one  who  would  have 
us  believe  that  want  of  food,  and  starvation  are  among  the 
common  afflictions  of  the  people  of  Liberia.  After  descri 
bing  the  "soil  of  Monrovia  as  very  thin  and  poor,"  except 
the  valley  between  the  cape  and  the  fort,  Dr.  Bacon  remarks : 

"The  shrubs  and  trees,  growing  through  the  streets  and  gardens, 
are  mostly  foreign  fiuits  introduced  indirectly  from  the  West  Indies., 
of  which  the  orange,  lime,  soursop,  guava,  tamarind,  cocoanut,  and 
papaw,  are  the  principal.  Of  these  only  the  guava  and  the  lime  are 
abundant;  the  former  having  been  naturalized  (probably  by  the  En 
glish  traders  before  the  beginning  of  the  colony,)  so  that  it  has  be 
come  quite  a  nuisance,  as  it  is  a  shrub  of  ready  and  luxuriant  growth  on 
poor  soils  ;  and  it  has  so  occupied  some  of  the  streets  and  fields  as  to 
require  much  labor  to  keep  it  down.  Limes,  too,  appear  to  have 
sprung  up  without  cultivation,  in  great  numbers.  Oranges  are  cheap 
and  good,  though  not  very  plenty ;  for  I  do  not  think  there  are  mora 
than  twenty  trees  producing  them  in  the  whole  colony.  [These  trees 
must  be  exceedingly  productive,  or  the  Liberians  have  little  taste  fo» 
oranges.]  The  soursop  is  not  more  abundant.  The  tamarind  quite 
rare.  The  cocoanut  is  found  in  but  two  localities." 

Again  says  Dr.  Bacon  : 

"  In  a  very  few  spots,  too,  are  seen  the  plantain  and  Bananna,  which, 
though  soft,  succulent,  perishable  plants,  each  trunk  dying  as  its  fruit 
is  removed,  have  nevertheless,  the  height,  air,  and  proportions  of 
flourishing  young  trees.  Of  these,  as  of  the  other  fruits,  we  only  find 
enough  to  show  how  easily  they  may  be  raised,  and  to  make  us  won 
der  and  complain  that  they  are  not  produced  in  satisfactory  abund 
ance.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  papaw,  and  of  garden  vegetable* 


LIBERIA.  29 

likewise.  In  regard  to  the  latter,  this  negligence  appears  particular 
ly  culpable,  as  even  the  thin  rocky  soil  of  the  Cape,  with  the  most  or 
dinary  cultivation,  will  produce  not  only  the  vegetable  of  the  tropics, 
but  also  most  of  those  which  are  found  in  the  gardens  of  temperate 
regions,  some  of  which  here  flourish  perennially,  requiring  little  at 
tention  to  make  them  yield  a  continual  crop  for  several  seasons ;  such 
are  limes,  beans,  and  other  legumes,  which,  when  once  planted  pro 
duce  richly  for  a  long  time.  Even  the  roots  natural  to  warm  regions 
are  capable  of  this  repeated  production.  The  sweet  potatoes  are 
pulled  up,  the  roots  picked  off,  and  the  green  tops  stuck  in  the  ground 
again,  to  radicate  even  in  the  first  shower."  Again:  '"The  appro 
priate  grain  of  this  climate  and  region  is  rice,  which  is  raised  in  great 
abundance  and  excellence  by  the  natives,  from  the  Gambia  to  Ivory 
Coast,  and  to  an  unknown  distance  interior.  On  this  part  of  the  coast, 
too,  this  great  staple  is  cultivated  with  infinitely  less  labor  than  in 
other  tropical  regions." 

We  notice  that  Dr.  Bacon,  though  he  could  see  no  evi 
dence  of  the  successful  cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane  and 
coffee  tree,  does  not  deny  the  nature  of  the  soil  and  climate 
to  be  suitable  for  the  production  of  the  sugar-cane,  coffee, 
and  cotton.  From  a  letter  of  Dr.  W.  Johnson,  who  had 
resided  four  years  in  the  colony,  dated  June  3d,  1S41,  we 
copy  the  following  extracts  : 

"  All  who  have  tried  the  Liberia  Coffee,  as  far  as  I  have  heard,  say 
that  it  is  equal  to  the  Mocha  or  Java.  The  usual  cost  of  clearing  land 
in  Liberia  and  introducing  a  crop  of  rice,  is  worth  about  five  dollars  in 
goods  at  African  prices.  The  coffee  requires  rather  close  topping  af 
ter  it  is  two  feet  high,  as  the  elongation  of  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk 
will  even  then  make  the  full  grown  tree  six  or  seven  feet  in  height,  which 
it  ought  not  to  exceed.  It  always  bears,  when  cultivated,  in  the  third 
year,  though  but  a  small  quantity.  There  is  a  large  increase  in  the 
product  every  year,  and  in  seven  years,  I  think  from  my  observation  of 
a  number  of  trees  of  about  that  age,  they  will  average  four  pounds  per 
tree.  We  have  not  yet  seen  the  tree  attain  its  full  growth,  but  it  doubt 
less  requires  about  fifteen  years.  In  the  West  Indies  it  is  said  to  grow 
twenty  years.  The  lowest  estimate  of  those  in  the  colony  who  have 
raised,  measured,  and  weighed  the  coffee  repeatedly,  is  five  pounds  per 
tree  for  an  average  production.  This  is  quite  extraordinary,  as  in  the 
West  Indies  the  average  crop  is  stated  by  very  respectable  authority, 
to  be  at  full  bearing,  a  tierce  of  a  thousand  pounds  to  an  acre,  on 
which  they  plant  above  seven  hundred  trees.  A  coffee  tree  in  Mon 
rovia  yielded  last  year  two  bushels,  three  and  three-fourths  pecks  of 
berries,  which  produced  seventeen  pounds  of  cleaned  and  cured  coffee. 
Such  facts  as  these  are  fully  explained  by  the  appearance  of  the  trees. 
They  will  grow,  if  not  topped  down,  to  the  height  of  twenty  feet,  and 
will  cover  ten  feet  square  of  land,  while  the  extent  of  the  branches  in 


30  LIBERIA. 

the  West  Indies  is  not  much  larger  than  that  of  a  hogshead.  The 
coffee  berries  are  commonly  borne  on  the  branches  more  compactly 
than  any  other  fruit  which  I  recollect  to  have  seen.  A  small  branch, 
which  I  brought  to  New  York,  bore,  within  the  space  of  one  foot  square, 
one  hundred  and  sixty  berries,  and  was  a  fair  specimen  of  their  gen 
eral  appearance.  The  plant  is  indigenous  in  Liberia,  or  has  become 
naturalized,  so  that  it  abounds  in  the  forest.  The  usual  allowance  of 
labor  in  the  West  Indies  is  one  slave  to  an  acre  of  coffee.  Eut  we 
have  free  women  and  children  and  natives  for  its  prosecution,  to  all  of 
which  circumstances  it  is  very  well  adapted.  We  have  two  or  three 
kinds  of  coffee,  one  of  which,  and  the  best,  has  leaves  as  large  as  a 
hand,  and  another  as  small  as  that  of  the  apple  tree." 

From  this  statement  it  may  be  inferred : 

1st.  That  the  best  coffee  plants  are  to  be  found  in  Liberia, 
and  that  the  soil  is  well  suited  to  their  growth  and  fruitful- 
ness. 

2nd.  That  if  properly  cultivated,  they  will  produce  at 
least  as  well,  probably  better  than  in  any  part  of  the  West 
Indies. 

3rd.  That  had  the  earliest  settlers  (which  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose,)  found  leasure  when  they  first  arrived,  to  set  out 
coffee  plantations,  they  might  in  1837,  have  nearly  attained 
their  full  growth. 

4th.  That  had  they  for  several  years,  been  necessarily 
occupied  (as  was  the  fact,)  in  securing  subsistence  from  oth 
er  sources  than  coffee  plantations,  then  the  fact,  as  Dr, 
Bacon  states,  that  coffee  was  imported  into  the  colony,  and 
not  thence  exported,  and  would  be  so,  as  he  thinks,  "  for 
ten  years  to  come,"  from  1837,  is  no  reason  for  discour 
agement  in  regard  to  the  production  of  coffee  in  that  coun 
try. 

5th.  That  among  "  the  few  neglected  coftee  bushes  that 
Dr.  Bacon  saw  growing  in  the  streets  of  Monrovia,"  (or 
which  escaped  his  notice  in  its  enclosures  and  gardens)  was 
one  that  in  1840,  yielded  seventeen  pounds  of  cleaned  and 
cured  cofec. 


LIBERIA.  31 

6th.  It  would  appear  from  the  following  extract  from 
the  letter  of  Dr.  J.  Lawrence  Day,  dated  Monrovia,  Febru 
ary  20,  1841,  that  the  product  of  this  one  tree  is  not  our 
only  demonstration  (though  it  is  quite  sufficient)  of  what 
may  be  done,  or  of  what  will  be  done  in  the  culture  of  cof 
fee  in  the  colony.  Dr.  Day,  says: 

••In  December,  nearly  forty  thousand  coffee  trees  were  living,  the 
plantings  and  growth  of  the  year  1840.  The  number  next  year  will 
probably  exceed  this.  These  all  in  a  few  years  will  become  a  source 
of  profit  to  the  owners,  much  larger  in  proportion  than  in  any  other 
country.  To  show  you  what  calculations  may  be  made,  a  colonist 
last  year  picked  from  one  tree  three  bushels  of  berries,  which  it  was 
found  yielded  foui  pounds  of  dried  coffee  to  the  bushel.  You  may 
think  this  an  extreme  case ;  I  grant  it.  ~But  there  are  now  bearing 
numbers  of  trees,  which  will  every  one  yield  one  bushel  and  many  of 
them  two  bushels  of  berries  to  the  tree." 

From  these  facts  we  infer  the  probability  that  before  the 
"  ten  years"  even  dating  from  the  year  of  Dr.  Bacon's  visit,, 
coffee  will  be  an  article  of  export  from  Liberia,  and  the 
certainty,  that  at  no  remote  day,  it  will  become  one  of  the 
great  staple  productions  of  the  colony. 

It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  human  nature  suddenly 
loses  all  its  weaknesses  and  imperfections,  by  crossing  the 
ocean,  or  by  any  new  circumstances  (however  favorable  to 
its  elevation,)  among  which  it  may  be  introduced,  nor  would 
it  be  reasonable  to  look  for  an  immediate  degree  of  ad 
vancement  among  colonists,  composed  of  a  people,  long 
depressed  by  adverse  and  withering  influences,  not  a  few 
of  them  by  slavery,  beyond  what  would  be  expected  of  the 
most  favored  of  our  race.  We  have  thought  the  work  of 
African  Colonization  admirably  adapted  to  strenghten  the 
intellectual  powers  and  nurture  and  develope  the  moral 
faculties  and  dispositions  of  those  who  might  engage  in  it, 
and  that  we  might  justly  anticipate  in  the  community  of 
Liberia,  a  sure  if  not  rapid  progress  in  knowledge  and  vir- 


32 


LIBERIA. 


tue.  We  have  never  claimed  for  this  people  entire  exemp 
tion  from  the  vices,  which  have  more  or  less  existence  in 
all  countries,  and  in  all  numerous  classes  of  human  beings. 
With  very  few  exceptions,  the  reports  of  those  both  from 
United  States  and  England,  who  have  visited  or  resided  in 
Liberia,  have  been  such  as  to  create  belief  in  the  general 
contentment,  sobriety,  industry  and  good  character  of  the 
colonists.  Their  own  opinions  and  sentiments,  the  colonists 
themselves,  are  best  able  truly  and  fully  to  express.  In 
September,  1827,  the  inhabitants  of  Monrovia  addressed  a 
circular  to  their  brethren  in  this  country  in  which  they  say : 
"Truly  we  have  a  goodly  heritage  ;  and  if  there  is  any  thing  lacking 
in  the  character  or  condition  of  the  people  of  this  colony,  it  never 
can  be  charged  to  the  account  of  the  country  it  must  be  the 
fruit  of  our  own  mismanagement  or  slothfulness  or  vices.  But 
from  these  evils  we  confide  in  Him,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  al  1 
our  blessings,  to  preserve  us." 

"It  is  the  topic  of  our  weekly  and  daily  thanksgiving  to  Almighty 
God,  both  in  public  and  private,  (and  He  knows  with  what  sincerity,) 
that  we  were  ever  conducted,  by  his  Providence,  to  this  shore."  " 

In  September,  1836,  the  citizens  of  Monrovia  again  assem 
bled  and  in  a  series  of  resolutions  expressed  their  unabated 
attachment  to  the  scheme  of  African  Colonization  and  their 
gratitude  to  its  friends.  Among  the  resolutions  adopted  on 
that  occasion  we  find  the  following: 

"  Whereas,  it  has  been  widely  and  maliciously  circulated  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  are  un 
happy  in  their  situation  and  anxious  to  return,  on  motion  of  Rev.  B. 
JR.  Wilson, 

c'  Resolved  that  this  report  is  false  and  malicious,  and  originated  in 
a  design  to  injure  the  colony,  by  calling  off  the  support  and  sympathy 
of  its  friends,  that  so  far  from  a  desire  to  return,  we  would  regard  such 
;m  event,  as  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  befall  us." 

In  October,  1834,  the  Rev  John  Seys  wrote  from  Monro 
via  to  Gerrit  Smith,  Esq.: 

"  Here  are  to  be  seen  intelligent,  sensible  and  in  many  cases  well 
educated  colored  gentlemen,  with  whom  it  is  pleasing  to  converse,  and 
whose  houses  and  families  give  evidence  of  good  order,  morality,  tem 
perance  and  industry.  Here  are  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  who  add  to 


LIBERIA.  33 

all  this  a  faithful,  and  zealous  and  untiring  zeal  to  promote  the  cause 
of  Christ  generally,  and  as  it  should  be,  to  promote  the  prosperity  of 
their  respective  denominations. 

"They  have  not  classical  education,  but  who  is  to  be  blamed?  And 
while  they  receive  no  remuneration,  no  salary,  and  are  obliged  to  fol 
low  a  trade,  to  be  entangled  with  the  affairs  of  this  life,  to  procure  an 
honest  livelihood,  is  it  not  much  to  their  praise,  that  they  fill  their  ap 
pointments,  and  go  up  the  rivers  and  creeks  at  their  own  expense,  to 
teach  their  brethren  and  neighbors  the  way  to  Heaven  ?  There  are  mem 
bers  of  several  Christian  churches,  who,  at  the  sound  of  the  church-go 
ing  bell,  are  seen  on  the  holy  sabbath,  slowly  and  reverently  assembling 
in  their  respective  places  of  worship,  to  adore  their  Creator  and  keep  his 
blessed  day.  In  fact,  the  Sabbath  is  held  sacred  in  Monrovia." 

In  1835,  the  Rev.  B,  R.  Wilson,  (an  intelligent  and  re 
ligious  colored  man  who  after  spending  some  time  in  the 
colony  had  returned  for  Ins  family]  wrote  for  publication: 

"  The  morals  of  the  colonists  I  regard  as  superior  to  the  same  popu 
lation  in  almost  any  part  of  the  United  States.  A  drunkard  is  a  rare 
spectacle,  and  when  exhibited  is  put  under  the  ban  of  public  opinion 
at  once. 

*|  To  the  praise  of  Liberia,  be  it  spoken,  I  did  not  hear  during  my 
residence  in  it,  a  solitary  oath  uttered  by  a  settler ;  this  abominable 
practice  has  not  yet  stained  its  moral  character  and  reputation,  and 
heaven  grant  that  it  never  may." 

Captain  Outerbridge  of  the  brig  Rover,  visited  the  colo 
ny  in  the  Summer  of  1835;  and  August  5th,  wrote  for 
publication  in  the  New  Orleans  Observer,  of  the  people  of 
Monrovia ; 

"  The  inhabitants  appear  to  enjoy  very  good  health,  and  are  very 
friendly  towards  one  another.  The  people  of  Monrovia  are  all  for  trade 
and  are  all  very  pious,  and  I  can  say  to  my  knowledge  I  heard  not  a 
word  of  ill-fame  while  I  was  in  Monrovia  among  the  Americans,  [colo 
nists  ;]  for  it  appeared  to  me  that  they  had  left  off  that  practice,  as 
well  as  drinking,  and  you  will  see  them  all  going  to  church  on  Sun 
day  three  times  a  day,  and  they  appear  to  be  very  strict  in  their  devo 
tions  ;  as  you  cannot  get  a  man  to  work  on  a  Sunday,  not  even  the  na 
tives." 

The  Rev.  G.  W.  McElroy,  on  his  return  from  Liberia  in 
December  1835,  wrote  : 

"  As  to  the  morality  of  the  colony,  it  is  in  general  good." 
Captain  Wm.  Hutton,  an  Englishman,  and  agent  of  the 
Western  African  Company  on  a  visit  to  the  colony  in  Oc- 
3 


34  LIBERIA. 

lober,  1836,  after  speaking  of  the  advantages  of  the  pla«e, 
and  the  friendly  and  hospitable  manners  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  of  their  gardens,  which  he  pronounced  in  good  order 
and  well  enclosed,  where  he  had  observed, 

i(  Fine  cabbages,  cucumbers,  parsley,  beans  and  other  vegetables., 
as  well  as  the  most  delicious  fruits,  such  as  pine-apples,  oranges, 
grapes,  guavas,  sousops,  the  African  cherry,  melons  and  lemons ;"' 
he  adds  "  I  must  also  do  the  inhabitants  the  justice  to  say,  that  they 
are  a  highly  respectable,  moral,  intelligent  people." 

The  Rev.  Charles  Rockwell  spent  some  days  at  the  col 
ony,  in  the  autumn  of  1836,  and  took  special  pains  to  ex 
amine  the  country  and  the  condition  of  nearly  alL  the  settle 
ments.  He  writes : 

"  The  soil  of  Liberia  is  various,  being  affected  by  its  position,  its  de 
gree  of  elevation,  and  other  similar  causes.  Directly  on  the  ocean, 
and  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  a  light,  warm,  sandy  soil  has  in  some 
places  been  thrown  up  by  the  water,  which  will  yield  sweet  potatoes, 
beans,  and  cassada,  but  without  manure  the  crops  will  be  small. 

"  The  next  variety  is  bottom  land,  of  strong,  light-colored  clay, 
which  is  sometimes  mingled  with  sand  and  dark  loam.  It  is  produc 
tive,  but  is  exposed  to  injury  from  the  extremes  of  dry  and  wet  weath 
er.  *  *  *  The  richest  soil,  however,  and  that  which  is  most 
prevalent  in  connexion  with  -the  different  settlements,  is  a  deep,  loose., 
black  mould,  of  alluvial  formation.  It  extends  back  from  the  banks 
of  the  rivers,  and  derives  its  strength  from  the  wash  of  the  fertile-up 
lands  above  and  beyond  it.  It  is  sufficiently  moist,  is  free  from  stones 
and  gravel,  and  will  give  to  any  crop  a  rank  and  luxuriant  growth. 

"  In  higher  positions  than  the  last  is  a  red,  clayey  soil  mingled  with 
rocks  and  gravel  of  the  same  hue,  all  of  which  derive  their  color  from 
the  oxyde  of  iron,  with  which  they  abound.  This  soil  is  of  a  poor 
quality,  but  may  be  much  improved  by  manuring. 

"  The  last  variety  we  shall  notice  is  a  strong,  rich  soil,  found  in 
connexion  writh  the  higher  and  more  rocky  uplands.  It  produces  a 
rank,  luxuriant  growth  of  forest  trees  and  plants,  but  will  produceweli 
during  the  dry  months  of  the  year.  Lands  of  this  kind,  however,  are 
extremely  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of  coffee  and  other  valuable 
plants  and  vegetables.^ 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Savage,  Episcopal  missionary  at  Cap6 
Palmas,  in  relating  the  incidents  of  a  trip  up  what  he  terms 
the  "  Noble  Cavally"  river,  says  : 

*•'  A  highly  attractive  object,  to  my  New  England  eye,  was  maize, 
so  frequently  seen  uppn  the  backs  of  this  rrver ;  and  another  no  less 
reviving  to  my  southern  associations,  was  rice ; — both  of.  whjch  are 


LIBERIA.  35 

produced  here  in  perfection.  The  rice  farms  are  very  extensive ;  and 
at  one  time  are  seen,  as  we  ascend  the  river,  (through  a  small  ope 
ning  among  the  trees,  made  for  a  landing  place,)  expanding  far  beyond 
into  fields  of  many  acres ;  at  another,  the  brush  being  cleared  away  to 
the  very  verge  of  the  river,  unfolds  to  the  eye  an  immense  expanse, 
waving  in  all  the  luxuriance  of  nature." 

In  evidence  of  the  satisfaction  of  the  colonists  with  their 
condition,  and  of  their  generally  correct  habits  of  temper 
ance,  industry,  good  morals,  and  respect  for  the  Sabbath, 
and  the  various  duties  of  religion,  we  might  adduce  testi 
mony  from  many  respectable  witnesses  not  only  from  this 
country  but  from  Great  Britain.  As  far  back  as  March, 
1828,  Captain  Nicholson  of  the  United  States  sloop-of-war 
Ontario,  wrote  to  Mr.  Clay  : 

"  All  the  colonists  with  whom  I  had  communication,  (and  with 
nearly  the  whole  of  them  did  I  communicate  in  person,  or  by  my  of 
ficers,)  expressed  their  decided  wish  to  remain  in  their  present  situa 
tion,  rather  than  return  again  to  the  United  States.  The  appearance 
of  all  the  colonists,  those  of  Monrovia  as  well  as  Caldwell,  indicated 
more  than  contentment.  Their  manners  were  those  of  freemen,  who 
experienced  the  blessings  of  liberty,  and  appreciate  the  boon." 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Pinney,  (then  the  late  governor  of  Li 
beria,)  in  a  speech  in  New  York,  June  28,  1836,  after 
speaking  of  the  destitute  character  of  emigrants,  (many  of 
them  liberated  slaves,)  on  their  arrival,  said, 

"  Could  they  be  expected  at  ono«  to  produce  a  great  and  wide  ef 
fect  on  the  native  population  around  ;  yet  they  have  built  them  hou 
ses,  and  churches,  and  school-houses.  To  expect  that  they  should, 
while  struggling  to  effect  this,  open  their  houses  and  fill  them  with 
the  children  of  natives,  hire  teachers  to  instruct  them,  and  ministers 
to  preach  to  them,  and  give  away  bibles  and  tracts  among  them,  would 
fre  a  most  unreasonable  expectation.  Yet  something  like  this  has 
been  dene  by  these  poor  colonists.  They  have  taken  natives  into 
their  families,  and  taught  them  the  customs  of  this  country,  and  they 
have  exerted  an  effort  decidedly  beneficial  upon  their  morals.  I  do 
not  say  that  all  the  colonists  are  moral.  Would  to  God  they  were. 
All  the  people  in  New  York  are  not  moral.  But  most  of  these  poor 
people  are  moral,  and  what  is  far  better,  they  are  pious  men  and  wo 
men.  They  have  erected  four  houses  for  divine  worship.  They  have 
put  up  500  dwelling  houses,  many  of  them  of  stone.  They  have  stone 
stores,  some  of  them  worth  frem  too  to  three  thousand  dollars  •  be 
sides  a  court-house  and  jail." 


36  LIBERIA. 

The  late  lamented  Governor  Buchanan,  in  1836,  on  view 
ing  the  villages  of  recaptured  Africans,  wrote  : 

"The  air  of  perfect  neatness,  thrift  and  comfort,  which  reign 
throughout,  afforded  a  lovely  commentary  on  the  advancement  which 
these  interesting  people  have  made  in  civilization  and  Christian  order, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Colonization  Society.  Imagine  to  your 
self  a  level  plain  of  some  two  or  three  hundred  acres,  laid  off  into 
square  blocks  with  streets  intersecting  each  other  at  right  angles,  as 
smooth  and  clean  as  the  best  swept  side-walk  in  Philadelphia,  and 
lined  with  well-planted  hedges  of  cassada  and  palm — Houses  sur 
rounded  with  gardens  luxuriant  with  fruit  and  vegetables — a  school- 
house  full  of  orderly  children  neatly  dressed  and  studiously  engaged 
— and  then  say  whether  I  was  guilty  of  extravagance  in  exclaiming, 
as  I  did,  after  surveying  this  most  lovely  scene,  that  had  the  Coloni 
zation  Society  accomplished  nothing  more  than  had  been  done  in  the 
rescue  from  slavery  and  savage  habits  of  these  three  hundred  people, 
I  should  be  well  satisfied."  Of  his  general  impressions,  he  says : 
({ were  I  to  obey  the  impulse  of  feeling,  I  fear  you  would  place  m& 
among  the  list  of  eulogists  whose  exaggerated  descriptions  have  done 
little  less  injury  to  the  interests  of  Liberia,  than  her  most  ignorant  re- 
vilers.  But  after  all  the  curbing  I  have  imposed  upon  my  coloniza 
tion  enthusiasm,  and  the  determination  to  look  at  things  on  the  dark 
side  as  well  as  on  the  bright,  Liberia  far  exceeds  in  almost  every  re 
spect,  all  that  I  have  ever  imagined  of  her." 

In  1828  the  Rev.  Dr.  Skinner,  for  a  time  Governor  of 
the  colony,  said  : 

<c  Of  the  colonists  a  large  portion  are  professors  of  religion.  In  the 
settlement  of  New  Georgia,  which  is  composed  of  native  Africans 
who  had  been  in  America  but  four  months,  of  375  there  are  167  mem 
bers  of  the  church.  Dr.  Skinner  said  that  in  his  residence  of  fourteen 
months  in  Liberia,  he  had  seen  and  heard  of  only  two  intemperate 
persons,  and  had  heard  only  one  profane  oath.  In  regard  to  the 
charge  of  bitter  prejudice  against  the  white  man,  among  the  colonists, 
he  said  that  the  whites  are  treated  with  respect  in  Liberia,  when  they 
treat  the  inhabitants  with  respect." 

In  1838  Dr.  Goheen,  who  was  never  connected  with  the 
Colonization  Society,  but  with  the  Methodist  mission,  wrote : 

"  The  people  are  industrious  and  persevering  in  their  attempts  to 
gain  a  comfortable  livelihood,  temperate  and  economical  in  their  hab 
its,  and  appear  to  be  really  enjoying  life. 

"  I  have  inquired  diligently,  and  I  have  yet  the  first  man  to  find  who 
would  leave  Liberia  for  a  residence  in  America  on  any  terms." 

Dr.  James  Lawrence  Day,  colonial  physician,  writes  in 
Feb.,  1841: 


LIBERIA.  37 

"  I  have  before  expressed  to  you  my  very  agreeable  surprise  at  find 
ing  the  colony  such  as  it  is — embracing  so  many  flourishing  settle 
ments,  and  having  a  people  among  whom  you  can  recognize  scarce  a 
lineament  of  the  American  slave.  Men  here,  are  men,  as  you  find 
them  in  other  communities,  showing  as  they  do  a  proper  respect  for 
themselves  and  you ;  you  cannot  remember  your  former  prejudices, 
however  strong  they  may  have  been,  but  meet  them  at  once,  without 
a  reflection,  on  terms  of  perfect  equality." 

A  distinguished  English  officer,  who  had  been  three 
years  on  the  African  coast,  speaking  of  the  people  of  Li 
beria  in  1832,  observes : 

f'  The  character  of  these  industrious  colonists  is  exceedingly  cor 
rect  and  moral ;  their  minds  strongly  impressed  with  religious  feel 
ings  ;  their  manners  serious  and  decorous  ;  and  their  domestic  habits 
remarkably  neat  and  comfortable." 

Lieut.  Colonel  H.  Dundas  Campbell  said  before  an  au 
dience  in  London,  in  January,  1841, 

"  That,  during  the  three  years  he  had  been  Governor  at  Sierra 
Leone,  he  had  frequent  opportunities  of  observing  persons  from  the 
colony  of  Liberia,  and  he  had  always  found  them  very  superior  in  in 
tellect,  besides  being  excellent  mechanics,  and  generally  very  moral, 
and  well-conducted.  In  fact,  he  would  candidly  say  that  no  persons 
in  his  own  colony  equalled  them.  From  his  knowledge  of  the  inte 
rior  of  Africa,  he  took  upon  himself  to  say,  that  it  was  by  the  estab 
lishment  of  such  colonies  as  Liberia  that  civilization  would  be  effect 
ed  there." 

Capt.  Stoll  of  the  British  navy,  who  visited  the  colony 
in  1840,  says  : 

(<  The  colonists  with  few  exceptions,  are  all  members  of  churches, 
and  I  can  safely  certify,  that  a  more  orderly  set  of  people  I  have  ne 
ver  met  with.  I  did  not  hear  an  improper  or  profane  expression  du 
ring  my  visit.  Spirits  are  excluded  in  most  if  not  all  the  settlements. 
They  have  formed  themselves  into  various  societies,  such  as  agricul 
tural,  botanical,  mechanical,  for  promoting  Christian  knowledge,  also 
a  ladies'  society  for  clothing  the  poor.  I  went  there  unbiassed,  and 
left  it  with  a  conviction  that  colonies  on  the  principle  of  Liberia  ought 
to  be  established  as  soon  as  possible,  if  we  wish  to  serve  Africa." 

Finally  we  conclude  this  mass  of  testimony  with  that  of 
Dr.  James  Hall,  who  long  resided  in  Liberia,  and  has  been 
intimately  acquainted  with  all  the  settlements  of  the  colony, 
for  the  past  eleven  years,  and  whose  perfect  candor  and 
integrity,  accuracy  of  observation,  and  remarkable  sagacity 


38 


LIBERIA. 


and  soundness  of  judgment,  are  admitted  by  all  who  know 
him. 

"The  Liberians,  says  Dr.  Hall,  have  shown  a  capacity  for  main 
taining  a  free  and  independent  government,  a  capacity  and  disposition 
for  a  fair  degree  of  moral  and  intellectual  improvement.  The  soil  of 
Liberia  is  one  of  the  most  productive  in  the  world,  and  capable  of 
yielding  all  the  varieties  of  vegetables,  and  all  the  staple  commodities 
of  the  tropics.  The  climate  of  Africa  is  one  that  will  prove  as  favor 
able  to  the  American  emigrant,,  as  does  the  climate  of  the  Western 
States  to  the  New  Englander.  In  fine,  all  that  is  necessary  to  favor 
and  perpetuate  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  an  independent  Christian  gov 
ernment,  is  an  increase  of  the  number  of  select  emigrants,  an  increase 
for  a  certain  period,  of  the  appropriation  to  each  individual  on  his  ar 
rival,  and  a  general  protection  from  the  government  of  this  country." 

If,  then,  upon  this  concurrent  testimony  from  colonists 
themselves,  from  free  colored  men,  who  after  careful  per 
sonal  examination  of  the  soil  and  settlements  of  Liberia, 
have  removed  thither  with  their  families;  from  captains  of 
merchant  vessels,  American  and  English;  from  missiona 
ries;  from  those  who  have  retired  from  offices  of  responsi 
bility  in  the  colony ;  from  intelligent  and  distinguished  na 
val  officers  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and 
from  the  late  Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  any  reliance  can 
be  placed,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  foundations  of 
a  free  Christian  commonwealth  are  well  laid  in  Africa,  and 
that  the  practicability  of  African  colonization,  to  an  indefi 
nite  extent,  is  demonstrated.  It  is  for  the  friends  of  God 
and  man  in  this  country  to  consider  how  colonies  so  well 
organized,  so  beneficent  as  far  as  their  power  and  influence 
extend,  so  admirably  designed  and  situated  for  progress, 
and  (if  duly  guarded  and  fostered,)  to  dispense  rich  bless 
ings  to  one  quarter  of  the  globe,  shall  be  sustained,  and 
rendered  effectual  means  of  relieving  the  miseries  and  ex 
alting  the  character  and  destiny  of  the  African  race. 

While  human  nature  continues  fallible,  no  plan  of  good, 
even  the  most  wise  and  least  objectionable,  can  be  execo* 


»  LIBERIA.  39 

ted  without  the  liability  to  error,  and  the  imperfection  in 
separable  from  all  the  works  of  man.     We  must  be  willing 
to  labor  in  the  twilight  of  our  knowledge,  and  to  have  our 
best  efforts  often  disturbed  and  counteracted  by  the  infirmi 
ties,  the  prejudices,  and  the  passions  of  mankind.     To  es 
cape  the  effects  of  ignorance,   mistake  and  perverseness, 
we  must  needs  go  out  of  the  world.     With  multitudes, 
popular  opinion,  (however  absurd,)  has  the  force  of  law. 
and  ridicule  is  the  test  of  truth.     A  word  of  contempt,  a 
shadowy  and  uncertain  rumor,  will  shake  the  faith  of  some 
in  a  cause,  the  merits  of  which  all  history  illustrates  and  all 
sound  argument  confirms.     In  view  of  the  evidence  we 
have  here  exhibited  of  the  condition,  character  and  impor 
tance  of  the  colony  of  Liberia,  we  call  upon  all  the  editors* 
clergy,  statesmen  and  Christians  of  the  country  to  awake 
and  arise  with  united  energies  and  build  it  up,  as  a  regen 
erating  power  to  Africa  and  an  everlasting  monument  to 
the  praise  of  our  philanthropy  and  religion.     Why  this  si 
lence,   doubt,  apathy  ?      Why   slumber  the   churches   as 
though  no  knell  sounded,  appallingly,  from  Africa  over  the 
perishing  and  the  lost  ?     Why  sleeps  this  whole  nation  as 
deaf  to  the  majestic  voice  of  Providence,  speaking  not  less 
audibly  than  when  it  summoned  the  hosts  of  Israel  to  go 
forward'?     Why  hesitate  our  statesmen  in  their  places  of 
honor  and  responsibility  to  propose  and  advocate  measures 
in  support  of  this  scheme,  so  closely  connected  with  the 
permanency  and  glory  of  our  Union  and  the  best  interests 
of  the  two  most  numerous  races  encompassed  by  its  limits  'I 
Will  delay  diminish  the  evils  to  be  remedied,  the  diffi 
culties  to  be  overcome,  or  the  expenditures  to  be  made  ? 
Shall  we  indolently  resign  all  the  honors  and  rewards  of 
d&e  enterprise  to  our  successors,  and  invite  by  our  deeds  of 


40  LIBERIA.  • 

compassion,  no  redeemed  children  of  Africa  to  come  as  pil 
grims  and  scatter  their  fragrant  flowers,  and  shed  their 
grateful  tears  upon  our  graves  1 

It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  every  emigrant  whether  co 
lored  or  white,  on  settling  in  Liberia  suffers  an  attack  of 
fever  which  has  hitherto  proved  fatal  to  most  white  people. 
According  to  Dr.  Goheen  and  other  colonial  Physicians, 
as  well  as  his  excellency  Gov.  Roberts,  an  old  resident  of 
the  colony,  the  mortality  attending  the  acclimation  of  the 
colored  emigrant  from  any  part  of  the  United  States  is  not 
as  great  as  that  which  attends  emigration  from  Eastern  to 
Western  states,  in  our  own  republic.  Probably  nine  tenths 
within  the  last  7  or  8  years  recover  from  the  attack,  and 
within  a  few  months  enjoy  as  good  health  as  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world,  There  is  now  a  territory  belonging  to 
the  Liberia  common-wealth  stretching  about  300  miles 
along  the  sea  coast  from  the  8th.  degree  of  N.  L.  towards 
the  equator,  and  from  10  to  30  or  40  miles  into  the  interior. 
They  have  several  good  harbors  for  shipping,  12  villages, 
29  houses  of  worship,  53  ministers  of  the  gospel, and  about 
2000  communicants :  besides  native  converts  the  number 
of  which  is  unknown.  It  is  said  by  Gov.  General  Roberts, 
that  in  point  of  industry,  temperance  and  civil  regulations 
the  Liberians  are  excelled  by  no  people  of  their  opportuni 
ties,  of  which  he  has  had  any  account;  and  this  is  coroborated 
by  the  testimony  of  Buchanan,  Matthias,  Chase,  Seys, 
Goheen,  Brown,  Tiege,  and  others  who  have  resided  for 
years  in  the  colony,  and  who  have  had  good  opportuni 
ties  for  contrasting  between  them  and  other  communities. 
They  have  17  common  and  2  high  schools  or  academies,  with 
able  teachers.  They  have  courts  of  justice,  legislatures  and 
other  civil  regulations;  and  all  these  departments  are  chiefly 


LIBERIA.  41 

superintended  and  conducted  by  colored  men.  Each  adult 
emigrant  is  on  his  arrival  at  the  colony  provided  with  a  vil 
lage  lot,  a  5  acre  lot  in  the  suburbs  and  a  50  acre  lot  in  the 
country  ;  and  is  supported  for  six  months  by  the  society. 

The  testimony  of  many  has  been  adduced  in  proof  that 
the  Liberians  are  highly  pleased  with  their  allotment,  that 
they  would  not  remove  to  any  other  country  under  heaven, 
that  they  highly  appreciate  the  efforts  of  Colonization  and 
regard  the  institution  as  their  most  propitious  earthly  bene 
factor.  Some  of  these  have  on  transient  visits  to  this  land 
testified  to  this  in  the  hearing  of  multitudes,  others  by  let 
ters  to  their  friends,  which  have  been  published  in  America. 

'It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive  ;'  and  men,  pro 
perly  exercised  and  trained,  enjoy  more  happiness  in  reflec 
ting  on  the  benefits  they  have  conferred  on  others,  than 
upon  favors  they  have  received  from  their  benefactors. 

To  add,  therefore,  to  the  happiness  of  the  emigrants, 
Colonization  has  placed  them  in  circumstances  to  do  good 
to  their  fellow  men,  by  making  the  colony  as  far  as  it  ex 
tends  an  insuperable  barrier  against  the  slave  trade.  The 
general  congress  in  1819,  in  compliance  with  a  memorial 
from  the  American  Colonization  Society,  set  an  example 
to  the  nations  of  the  earth  by  declaring  the  slave  trade  pi 
racy;  and  by  authorising  President  Monroe  to  fit  out  an  arm 
ed  vessel  to  watch  the  African  coast  for  the  purpose  of  seiz 
ing  all  American  vessels  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  Rev. 
Jehudi  Achmun  was  also  appointed  the  same  year  to  act  as 
government  agent  in  Africa  and  to  cooperate  with  the  Colo 
nial  agent  to  whose  care  all  recaptured  slaves  were  to  be 
committed.  The  English  parliament  soon  followed  the  ex 
ample  of  the  United  States  and  at  an  immense  expense  has 
for  20  years  endeavored  to  guard  the  African  continent 


42  SLAVE  TRADE. 

against  the  depredations  of  slavers.  To  what  purpose  these 
great  sacrifices  have  been  made,  may  be  seen  by  an  exam 
ination  of  Sir.  -Thomas  Fowel  Buxton's  report  of  two  years 
travel  and  observation ;  during  which  time  he  visited  the 
extensive  coast  of  Africa,  and  most  of  the  ports  where  slave 
ships  unlade  their  cargoes  of  human  beings.  Perhaps  the 
reading  world  has  never  seen  adevolopement  of  facts  more 
astounding,  nor  yet  more  contrary  to  expectation  than  it  has 
found  in  Mr.  Buxton's  invaluable  book.  Mr.  B.  is  a  mem 
ber  of  the  british  parliament  and  for  some  time  President 
of  the  British  Anti-slavery  Society.  He  had  become  strong 
ly  prejudiced  against  African  Colonization,  and  it  was  ma 
nifestly  a  paramount  object  of  his  extensive  travels  to  make 
discoveries  for  the  promotion  of  the  anti-slavery  cause. 
His  prepossessions  therefore  as  well  as  his  unsullied  repu 
tation  for  truth  and  veracity  places  him  at  a  remove  from 
all  suspicion  of  any  connivance  with  colonization  principles. 
I  shall  here  take  the  liberty  to  quote  substantially  from  Mr. 
Buxton's  work  what  is  to  our  purpose  not  disguising  the 
fact  that  our  author  differs  from  us  in  opinion  as  to  the  in 
struments  by  which  the  plan  is  to  be  carried  on. 

Mr.  Buxton's  theory  is  1st.  Legislation  against  the  slave 
trade  can  never  suppress  it,  though  all  Christian  nations 
should  unite  vigrously  in  maintaining  the  integrity  of  their 
laws;  because  the  records  of  custom  houses  show  that 
legislation  has  never  yet  succeeded  in  breaking  up  any 
trade  the  profits  of  which  exceed  33  per  cent.  The 
advance  on  capital  invested  in  the  slave  trade  is  at  least  88 
per  cent.  Neither 

2nd.  Will  the  policy  of  watching  the  coast  with  ships  of 
war  accomplish  the  object.  The  gain  of  the  slave  trade 
has  led  its  enterprisers  to  the  adoption  of  measures  which 


SLAVE  TRADE.  43 

have  baffled  all  such  designs.  And  though  some  slave 
ships  have  been  taken  by  British  and  American  cruisers, 
and  their  suffering  victims  rescued  ;  yet  these  bear  no  pro 
portion  to  the  number  which  have  escaped,  and  not  only 
have  not  perceptibly  diminished  the  traffic,  but  have  been 
the  occasion  of  greatly  augmenting  the  amount  of  African 
suffering  and  death.  Slave  vessels  are  now  built  on  the 
principle  of  fast  sailing  and  distancing  their  pursuers  ;  the 
middle  passage  is  more  limited  in  its  extent — the  suffering 
victims  more  closely  packed  or  cramed  together ;  the 
dreadful  consequences  of  which  are,  the  mortality  is  vastly 
greater,  and  this  loss  is  supplied  by  a  proportionably  heavier 
draught  on  Africa.  The  probability  is,  that  the  loss  of  hu 
man  life  in  carrying  on  the  slave  trade  is  35  per  cent, 
greater  than  would  have  been  had  no  such  efforts  been 
made  to  suppress  it,  Better,  says  he,  let  slavers  pursue 
quietly  their  work  of  theft,  robbery  and  murder,  than  be 
the  occasion  of  so  much  additional  suffering  and  death. 
Despite  of  all  that  has  been  done  in  England  and  America, 
in  their  legislative  halls  and  by  the  vigilance  of  their  marine 
forces  ;  though  each  government  has  denounced  the  trade 
as  piracy  and  each  has  sent  her  fleets  to  enforce  her  laws, 
the  murderous  traffic  still  goes  on,  and  in  these  two  coun 
tries  are  manufactured  most  of  the  ships,  implements 
and  articles  of  trade  used  in  carrying  on  the  fiendish  enter 
prise — an  enterprise  which  robs  Africa  of  half  a  million  of 
her  children  annually — inhumanly  murders  one  half  of  these 
by  seizure  and  detention,  passage  and  acclimation,  and  con 
signing  the  other  half  to  a  bondage  but  little  preferable  to 
death. 

Mr.  Buxton  at  last  arrives  at  the  conclusion,  that,  to  plant 
colonies  along  the  coast,  teach  the  natives  agriculture  and 


44  SLAVE  TRADE. 

the  civil  arts,  turn  their  attention  to  a  different  and  lauda 
ble  trade,  are  the  only  means  of  preventing  the  ingress  of 
slave  ships  and  the  progress  of  the  trade.  Sir  Thomas  is 
entitled  to  credit  for  his  honesty  and  frankness  in  declaring 
his  convictions,  and  for  the  discovery  of  facts  confirmatory 
of  the  principle  he  advocates.  His  plan,  however,  addresed 
itself  more  to  the  ambition  of  the  British  Government  than 
to  its  philanthropy,  and  it  is  attributable  to  what  was  sug 
gested,  no  doubt,  as  an  improvement  to  the  plan  which 
had  been  in  operation  for  more  than  twenty  years  by  Ame 
rican  Colonizationists,  that  it  proved  an  utter  failure.  Cer 
tainly,  nothing  can  more  effectually  defeat  the  murderous 
designs  of  slave  traders,  than  an  impenetrable  belt  of  civili 
zation  thrown  around  the  country  their  victims  inhabit. 
The  Liberia  commonwealth  has  already  secured  the  best 
anchorage  ground  on  the  western  coast,  and  if  successful  in 
what  it  has  undertaken  to  accomplish,  the  present  year, 
(1844,)  will  control  the  coast  and  completely  annihilate  the 
trade  for  about  700  miles.  The  British  colony  at  Siere 
Leone,  north  of  Liberia,  with  the  assistance  of  British 
cruisers,  will  be  able  to  protect  that  injured  country  from 
this  invasion  for  a  still  greater  distance.  The  success  of 
the  British  efforts  with  the  powerful  Ashantees,  south  of 
Liberia,  and  a  mission  recently  established  at  the  Gaboon 
river  by  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  if  suc 
cessful,  will  secure  all  the  harbors  from  the  equator  to  the 
14th  degree  N.  Latitude.  The  English  have  also  a  pos 
session  at  Badagra,  between  2d  and  3d  deg.  S.  L.,  and  a 
fort  on  a  peninsula  4  deg.  30  min.  South,  between  which 
and  their  possessions  at  Cape  Colony,  the  Dutch  have  a 
colony  of  10,000  emigrants.  The  Portugese  and  French 
have  colonies,  the  former  on  the  eastern  and  the  latter  on 


AFRICAN  BARBARISM.  45 

the  western  coast ;  most  of  the  eastern  shore  is  rock-bound 
and  utterly  inaccessible  to  vessels  from  the  sea. 

From  this  cursory  view  of  the  fortifications,  colonies 
and  mission  stations ;  the  governments  engaged  in  these 
enterprises,  and  the  success  which  has  attended  the  opera 
tions  of  such  as  have  been  directed  against  the  slave  trade — 
quite  as  extensive  as  the  plan  of  this  work  will  permit,  and 
quite  sufficient  to  show  that  Colonization  on  the  shores  of 
Africa,  if  persevered  in,  is  destined  to  overthrow  the  Afri 
can  slave  trade — we  shall  now  direct  the  reader's  attention 
to  another  and  still  more  important  object  of  "  African 
Colonization"  ;  which  is  :  What  Colonization  proposes  to 
do  for  Africa. 

It  is  feared  that  our  sympathy  for  negro  suffering  and 
oppression,  consequent  on  domestic  slavery,  has  but  too 
nearly  shut  up  our  bowels  of  compassion  for  the  native  Af 
rican  In  our  zeal  to  remedy  the  great  evil  of  slavery, 
we  have  been  exhausting  our  energies  in  lopping  off  the 
twigs  and  branches  of  the  upas  tree,  without  striking  at  tiie 
root.  Not  that  we  should  be  inattentive  to  that  foul  blot 
upon  our  nation's  character,  or  to  the  degredation  and  suf 
fering  of  those  in  bonds  among  us.  These  things  we  should 
do,  but  we  should  not  leave  the  other  undone. 

Africa,  of  all  nations  under  heaven,  is  perhaps  the  most 
fallen  and  degraded — the  most  superstitious  and  wretched 
— the  most  barbarous  and  cruel :  slavery,  human  sacrifice, 
and  cannibalism  are  practiced  to  this  day,  and  have  been 
from  the  days  of  yore.  Divided  into  petty  sovereignties, 
clans  or  hordes,  their  policy  has  been  to  commit  depreda 
tions  on  each  other — plunder,  rob,  capture  and  devour; 
their  prisoners  are  doomed  to  slavery — sold  in  the  market, 
sacrificed  on  their  alters,  murdered  to  avenge  the  loss  of  rel- 


46  AFRICAN  BARBARISM. 

atives,  or  butchered  and  dressed  for  eating.  Nothing  can 
exceed  the  horrors  and  sufferings  of  those  who  are  pat  to 
death  to  appease  the  rage  of  those  whose  relatives  have 
been  slain  in  battle.  They  are  flayed  alive — the  heart  ta 
ken  out,  and  while  quivering  in  its  blood,  tasted  by  all  for 
whose  loss  the  victim  atones.  A  missionary  among  the 
Badragas  saw  at  one  time  a  tree  where  victims  of  this  de 
scription  were  sacrificed  ;  the  branches  were  literally  bur 
dened  with  skeletons,  and  the  ground  for  some  distance  lit 
erally  covered  with  human  bones.  Each  tribe  has  its 
monthly  and  yearly  sacrifices  :  when  they  have  no  prison 
ers  or  slaves  who  can  be  spared,  criminals  are  appointed, 
and  in  the  absence  of  these,  their  children  supply  tke  altars, 
from  half  a  million  of  which  smoking  incense  so  often  rises 
in  honor  of  deified  reptiles,  breasts,  fishes,  images  and  infer 
nal  spirits. 

Do  we  deprecate  the  existence  of  slavery  in  this  and 
other  Christian  lands  1  do  we  look  with  indignation  on  the 
trade  which  has  brought  to  our  shores  so  many  suffering, 
degraded  human  beings  ?  are  we  ready  to  rise  and  with 
one  simultaneous  cry  of  disgust  and  reprobation  thunder 
our  anathmas,  and  by  efforts  corresponding  with  our  holy 
cholor,  crush  these  institutions  1  How  much  more  should 
oar  sympathies  be  awakened  for  suffering  humanity  in  that 
land  of  deepest,  darkest  moral  gloom — how  much  higher 
should  rise  the  flame  of  our  burning  zeal  for  the  rescue  of 
that  country  1  Oh,  to  what  extent  should  we  lay  under 
contribution  our  efforts,  our  influence,  and  our  means,  for 
the  recovery  from  the  reign  and  dominion  of  superstition 
and  horror  Africa's  150  millions  !  No  man  more  sincerely 
deplores  the  existence  of  slavery  in  OUP  land  than  ©urself, 
ngr  will  we  be  second  to  any  of  ouf  ability  in  carrying  out 


AFRICAN  SLAVERY,  &C.  47 

proper  measures  for  wiping  away  the  stain  it  has  fixed  up 
on  our  nation's  character.     The  suffering,  the  degredation, 
the   misery,   however,   consequent   upon    slavery    in    any 
Christian  land,  bears  no  comparison  to  the   wretchedness 
and  horrors  of  slavery  as  it  exists  in  Africa.     It  is  not  de 
nied  that  the  criminality  of  enlightened  slave  traders  and 
slave  owners  may  be  accounted  vastly  greater  in  the  day 
of  judgment,  than  that  of  uncivilized  and  benighted  Afri 
cans  :  "  He  that  knoweth  his  Master's  will  an  doeth  it  not, 
shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes.''     We  are  considering 
now,  not  the  amount  of  moral  turpitude  which  attaches  itself 
to   the   conduct,  when  the    circumstances,  the  light  and 
knowledge  of  the  agents  are  considered ;  but  the  evils  re 
sulting  to  the  objects  of  the  action.     Let  us  for  a  moment 
contrast  the  condition  of  an  American  slave  with  that  of  a 
slave  in  Africa.     The  one  has  some  protection  by  civil  leg 
islation,  the  other  none  at  all ;  popular  opinion,  as  well  as 
civil  and  religious   principles,  throw  a  restraint  upon  the 
most  unprincipled  of  American  slaveholders.     If,  indeed, 
we  were  to  suppose  the  slave  to  be  treated  as  a  brute,  t^ie 
treatment  of  the  owner  will  be  regulated  by  principles  uni 
versally  imbibed.     The  sentiment  which  obtains  in  Africa 
is,  "  that  the  master  has  a  right  to  adopt,  unrestrained,  .his 
treatment  of  his  slave,  even  to  the  taking  of  life."     In  Ame 
rica  the  value  of  the  slave  is  a  security  against  the  deadly 
thrusts  of  the  master — if  he  be  slain  or  crippled  the  master 
sustains  a  loss  of  property  :  in  Africa  the   slave  is  worth 
but  little  more  than  his  weight  in  fish  or  flesh,  and  if  he  dies 
by  the  violence  of  his  owner  he  will  then  serve  him  for 
food.     Here  the  slave  is  addressed  by  the  gospel,  ancj-may 
be  made  a  partaker  of  its  benefits,  and  death  will  be  his 
passport  to  freedom  and  bliss ;  but  yonder  na  voice  of 


48  AFRICAN  SLAVERY,  &C. 

mercy  salutes  him — no  comforts  of  grace  are  mingled  with 
his  cup  of  sorrow,  and  his  awful  death  is  a  "  leap  in  the 
dark."  Finally,  American  slavery  is  a  transfer  of  its  sub 
jects  to  a  far  better  condition  than  that  in  which  they  were 
placed  before — and  the  abolition  of  American  slavery  on 
colonization  principles,  may  yet  declare  "  How  unsearcha 
ble  is  God's  wisdom  and  his  ways  past  Jinding  out." 

Africa  is  supposed  to  number  from  99  to  150  millions  of 
inhabitants,  most  of  whom  are  thus  debased  and  sunk  in 
the  lowest  state  of  degredation  and  barbarism,  and  now 
opens  to  the  Christian  world  an  extensive  field  for  scientific, 
civil  and  moral  culture.     Had  Africa  no  claim  on  the  sym 
pathies  and  efforts  of  the   civilized  and  Christian  world, 
other  than  that  which  is  founded  on  the  principles  we  have 
universally  imbibed  and  inculcated,  it  would  hardly  be  set 
aside.     We  could  not  consistently  with  our  professions  of 
philanthropy,  either  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  groans  and  wail- 
ings  wafted  on  every  breeze,  or  look  unmoved  at  her  smo 
king  altars  and  writhing  victims  of  superstitious  barbarism. 
Moved  by  no  impulse  other  than  the  pity  her  misery  should 
excite  in  every  bosom,  Christendom  should  be  aroused  and 
fly  to  the  rescue.     But  Africa  has  a  demand  on  us  aside 
from  those  binding  considerations,  and  on  principles  which 
render  it  still  more  imperative.     Africa  is  the  birth-place  of 
literature — from  her  the  Europeans  received  the  first  prin 
ciples  of  science  and  civilization.     As  we  esteem  and  value 
these  essential  ornaments  and  comforts  of  men  and  of  na 
tions,  so  should  we  sympathize  with  their  now  fallen  and 
debased  progenitor ;  and  having  derived  from  her  the  es 
sential  elements  of  our  happiness  and  glory,  we  should  as  a 
debt  of  gratitude — nay,  in  compliance  with  a  legal  demand, 
refund  those  elements,  principle  and  interest.    But  alas! 


AFRICAN  SLAVERY,  &C.  49 

how  strangely  and  wickedly  have  we  perverted  those 
principles — to  which,  for  our  immediate  benefit,  Africa  has 
given  birthto  instruments  of  cruelty  and  torture.  We 
have  risen  to  power  by  the  rich  productions  of  her  mental 
soil ;  and  finding  her  shorn  of  her  strength,  we  have  taken 
advantage  of  her  weakness — her  burning  towns  have 
served  as  lighthouses — her  children  as  commerce  ;  the 
fierce,  demoniac  yell  or  war-hoop,  the  frantic  scream,  the 
fainting  death  wail  cf  her  mis-guided  subjects,  the  music  of 
our  tars,  or  the  enlivening  tunes  to  which  our  slave  ships 
have  danced  upon  her  coast;  and  we  have  made  the  spoil 
ing  of  her  goods  the  invaluable  increase  of  our  wealth. 

"  Is  this  the  kind  return — 

Are  these  the  thanks  we  owe  ??J 

If  it  be  settled  that  efforts  should  be  made  for  the  re 
demption  of  Africa,  the  next  consideration  is,  through  what 
instrumentality  can  this  most  effectually  and  with  the 
greatest  facility  be  done ;  or,  what  class  of  men  shall  be 
employed  in  accomplishing  this  great  enterprise  1  It  is 
already  demonstrated  that  but  little  can  be  accomplished  for 
Africa  through  the  agency  of  Europeans  or  Americans 
alone.  Opposed  to  this  plan  are  three  insurmountable  ob 
jections  :  1st.  The  African  climate  is  unsuited  to  their  con 
stitutions  :  of  those  who  have  made  the  trial,  more  than 
19  in  20  have  fallen,  or  have  been  obliged  to  return  for  the 
recovery  of  their  health.  2d.  The  sentiment  is  so  univer 
sally  prevalent  among  the  native  Africans  that  the  whites 
are  a  superior  grade  of  beings  to  themselves ;  that  civiliza 
tion,  science  and  religion  are  suited  to  the  capacity  of  the 
white  man  only,  that  could  he  endure  the  heat  of  the  cli 
mate,  his  efforts  among  them  would  be  unavailing.  Said 
a  native  king  to  a  missionary,  who  had  explained  to  him 


•50  AFRICAN  SLAVERY,    &C. 

the  doctrine  of  atonement,  "  I  believe  your  religion  good 
for  the  white  man,  because  it  is  of  God,  and  the  white  man 
was  made  for  God  ;  but  the  negro  was  made  for  the  Devil 
— the  negro  no  worship  God,  for  God  will  no  have  the  ne 
gro — the  negro  worship  the  Devil  cause  the  Devil  will 
have  he."  3d.  A  third  difficulty  opposed  to  missionary 
operations  in  the  usual  way,  is  the  murderous  and  warlike 
disposition  of  most  of  those  tribes.  Nothing  could  be  more 
acceptable  to  those  mercenary  clans,  in  the  employment  of 
slave  dealers,  than  to  find  a  school  of  native  children  unpro 
tected.  These  would  be  seized,  carried  off  to  a  factory 
and  sold  and  shipped  as  slaves.  A  mission  was  established 
in  1840,  by  Rev.  George  S.  Brown,  a  little  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Liberia  commonwealth.  No  sooner  than  a  school 
of  about  forty  children  was  collected,  intelligence  reached 
them  that  Gotirah,  a  chieftain  who  had  laid  waste  thirty 
towns  already,  had  promised  to  lead  his  men  to  the  attack 
of  Heddington  station — swearing  by  his  God,  he  would 
eat  the  missionary  for  his  breakfast  and  carry  off  the  mis 
sion  property  and  the  children  as  booty ;  and  but  for  timely 
aid  afforded  by  Buchanan,  then  Governor  General  of  the 
colony,  that  promising  mission  had  been  broken  up.  Ow 
ing  to  one  or  other  of  these  difficulties,  much  time  has  been 
lost,  immense  sums  have  been  expended,  and  many  valua 
ble  lives  have  been  lost  to  little  or  no  purpose. 

Colonization  has  hit  upon  the  only  feasible  and  success 
ful  plan  ever  yet  devised  for  the  accomplishment  df  the 
great  enterprise  of  civilizing  Africa,  by  planting  colonies 
of  civilized  negroes  contiguous  to  her  barbarous  tribes. 
This  plan  is  admirably  adapted  to  all  the  circumstances 
which  have  operated  so  unyieldingly  against  other  benevo 
lent  undertakings.  The  instrument  chosen  is  of  the  same 


INFLUENCE  OP  COLONIZATION  ON  AFRICA.  51 

features  and  complexion,  of  the  same  great  family  with  the 
natives ;  they  can  accost  each  other  as  kinsmen,  and  pass 
reciprocal  salutations  and  greetings  as  peers. 

The  climate  of  Africa  is  suited  to  the  constitution  and 
habits  of  the  colored  man :  there  seems  to  have  been  by 
the  God  of  Nature  a  perfect  conformity  originally  of  the 
one  to  the  other.  It  is  not,  however,  pretended  that  ne 
groes  born  in  America,  and  especially  those  whose  ances 
tors  for  several  generations  are  American  born,  will  suffer 
nothing  by  their  return  to  Africa.  Nature  will  exert  itself 
under  all  circumstances  and  changes  of  climate  and  habits, 
so  to  change  in  her  functions  and  operations  as  to  preserve 
existence  and  promote  health.  Nothwithstanding  her  ef 
forts  have  been  so  successful  that  the  Africo-American  en 
joys  as  good  health  as  his  anglo  neighbors,  facts  on  record 
show,  conclusively,  that  in  emigrating  to  Africa  from  these 
shores  he  does  not  suffer  as  much  as  our  Ne~.v  En  gland  ad 
venturers  do  in  removing  to  the  states  and  territories  of  the 
west. 

Another  and  weighty  consideration,  unforseen,  to  be 
sure,  by  the  originators  of  this  scheme,  is,  by  introducing 
the  civilized,  the  learned,  the  Christian  negro  to  the  natives 
of  Africa,  you  furnish  them  the  most  unequivocal  proof  of 
the  absurdity  of  their  former  notions.  The  natives  have 
addressed  to  their  senses,  conclusive  evidence,  that  the  ne 
gro  is  capable  of  appreciating  and  enjoying  all  the  bless 
ings  of  civilization.  Had  we  loom,  we  would  give  many 
examples  illustrative  of  this  position,  but  one  must  suffice. 

While  temperance  principles  were  advocated  by  such 
only  as  had  always  been  temperate,  the  instances  of  drunk 
ards  reclaimed  were  so  rare  that  it  became  proverbial, 
"  Our  hope  is  with  those  who  have  never  contracted  the 


INFLUENCE  OP  COLONIZATION  ON  AFRICA. 

habit  of  drinking,"  "  the  drunkard  is  beyond  recovery/' 
The  secret  is  now  revealed  The  drunkard  was  addressed 
by  men  who  knew  nothing  of  the  craving  of  his  appetite 
for  liquor,  and  often  has  he  regreted  that  he  acquired  the 
habit ;  but  now  that  it  is  formed,  I  feel,  as  our  teachers 
say,  that  I  cannot  overcome  it.  But  when  the  inebriate 
saw  before  him,  in  the  Washingtonian,  one  who  had  been 
as  beastly  as  himself,  now  reformed,  "  clothed  and  in  his 
right  mind,"  courage,  ambition,  hope,  with  corresponding 
effort,  are  inspired  and  he  is  at  once  a  reformed  man. 

Last.  If  the  circumstances  were  equal — if,  indeed,  it 
were  at  the  same  hazzard  of  health  and  life,  at  the  samo 
sacrifice  of  means  of  domestic  and  social  enjoyment,  and 
with  no  fairer  prospects  of  success,  even  then  the  obliga 
tion  would  be  more  binding  on  the  colored  than  on  the 
white  man.  It  is  his  own  race,  his  kindred,  his  family, 
which  utters  the  cry  of  distress,  and  implores  help ;  and  it 
is  by  a  rule  God  himself  has  given,  it  is  the  nearest -kins 
man  or  relation  on  whom  the  obligation  to  redeem  first  rests. 
He,  if  able,  though  he  may  not  be  as  able  as  a  more  dis 
tant  connexion,  is  bound  by  the  law  of  Heaven  to  adminis 
ter  relief.  How  much  more  when  in  all  respects  the  color 
ed  man  has  decidedly  the  advantage — can  accomplish 
vastly  more,  not  only  at  no  sacrifice  or  expense,  but  infinite 
ly  to  his  own  advantage.  Colonization  adopts  no  coersive 
measures  :  "  It  is  with  their  own  consent"  the  colored  peo 
ple  are  to  be  removed ;  nevertheless,  it  should  be  urged 
upon  their  consideration  that  duty,  high  moral  obliga 
tion,  self-interest,  even  self-respect,  and  self-preservation, 
combine  to  render  it  imperative  that  they  should  em 
bark  in  the  enterprise.  I  tremble  in  view  of  the  fearful  ac 
count  such  must  render  as  are  engaged  in  discouraging 


APPEAL  TO  THE  BENEVOLENT.  53 

the  colored  people  from  entering  into  these  measures,  by 
misrepresenting  the  condition  of  the  emigrants  in  that  com- 
monfvealth ;  impugning  the  motives  of  the  society,  as  if  it 
were  the  degredation  of  the  race  at  which  the  association 
aims,  and  that  no  higher  motives  prompted  the  undertaking 
than  to  get  rid  of  the  free  blacks.  Surely,  had  this  been 
all,  measures  would  have  been  resorted  to  far  more  facili- 
tous  and  less  expensive.  The  colored  man  is  also  encour 
aged  to  hope  that  the  prejudice  of  caste  will  soon  be  done 
away  :  "  All  distinction  in  consequence  of  color  must  be 
done  away,"  is  the  motto  of  a  few  ;  and  by  their  zeal  for 
the  accomplishment  of  this  object,  their  profession  of  at 
tachment  to  the  person  and  cause  of  the  negro,  they  have 
not  only  won  his  affection  and  confidence,  but  have  insti 
gated  him  to  hold  and  treat  as  his  enemies  all  who  do  not 
thus  encourage  his  delusive  hopes.  By  these  means  the 
colony  has  been  deprived  of  many  valuable  accessions  ; 
many  a  native  African  has  already  gone  down  to  death 
shrouded  in  the  darkness  of  paganism,  upon  whose  soul 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  might  long  since  have  risen,  and 
many  a  colored  man  is  destined  to  pass  in  obscurity  and 
comparative  inactivity  and  uselessness,  who  might  have 
risen  to  eminence  in  Liberia  as  a  statesman,  or  with  those 
who  turn  many  to  righteousness  have  shone  for  ever  and 
ever. 

It  is  too  late  in  the  day  to  stand  aloof  and  contend  about 
first  principles.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  motives 
which  led  to  the  adoption  of  these  measures,  most  of  the 
originators  of  the  scheme  are  gone  to  their  reward ;  and 
the  question  more  properly  is,  not  whether  they  were  right 
or  wrong,  but  what  shall  be  done  for  that  still  feeble  colony  ? 

Thousands  of  our  colored  brethren,  relying  on  our  pro- 


54  APPEAL  TO  THE  BENEVOLENT. 

tection  arid  support,  have  crossed  the  foaming  deep,  en 
countered  the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  an  untried  climate, 
an  unsubdued  soil  and  an  untamed  race  of  men.  ffhey 
have  struggled  with  these  and  numerous  other  obstacles,  in 
spired  not  so  much  by  present  enjoyments  as  by  future  hopes, 
until  they  behold  with  rapture  the  eagle  of  freedom  flutter 
ing  in  the  breeze,  and  the  banner  of  the  cross  waving  in  tri 
umph  in  their  moral  atmosphere  ;  civilization  and  science 
spreading  and  predominating  over  a  territory  of  500  square 
miles,  into  which  90,000  of  the  natives  have  been  induced 
to  enter  for  protection  and  instruction.  And  now  we  ask 
the  most  strenuous  opposer  of  the  institution,  what  ought 
we  to  do  ?  Shall  we  betray  our  trust,  withhold  our  support, 
and  suffer  the  institution  to  languish  and  die  1  Would  you 
see  the  wild  swine  of  the  wood  pluck  and  devour  that 
vine  ?  would  you  see  the  flourishing  fields  of  Liberia  over 
run  again  by  savage  tribes,  and  turned  again  into  a  wilder 
ness  ?  would  you  see  their  temples  demolished  or  turned 
into  slave  factories,  or  desecrated  to  idol  or  devil  worship  1 
would  you  have  us  call  home  our  missionaries — blow  out 
for  ever  the  light  of  civilization  and  religion,  and  consign 
Africa  over  to  the  darkness  and  damnation  of  paganism  1 
If  you  would  not,  cease  then  your  pestiferous  breath 
against  this  institution !  But  we  ask  you,  especially,  who 
have  yourselves  decoyed  some  of  these  unsuspecting  ne 
groes  into  that  land  of  paganism  and  death ;  you  who  have 
advised  them  to  go — who  have  contributed  for  that  pur_ 
pose  and  incited  others  to  do  so  :  they  have  gone  confi 
ding  in  your  integrity,  relying  on  your  promise  of  support, 
and  would  you  ask  us  to  follow  your  worse  than  traitorous 
example  and  deliver  them  over  to  African  cannibals  ? 


APPEAL  TO  THE  BENEVOLENT.  55 

Never  !   never  !    "  If  we  have  promised  to  our  hurt,  let  us 
make  our  promise  good." 

You  say  "  the  emigrants  have  been  deceived."  I  grant 
it.  But  you  yourselves  have  been  the  deceivers  ;  you  have 
given  your  solemn  pledge  to  stand  by  and  sustain  them — 
to  support  them  by  ;your  funds  and  your  influence — to 
gladden  their  hearts  and  strengthen  their  hands  by  sending 
the  means  of  grace  and  additional  forces.  Encouraged  by 
these  assurances,  they  are  now  faithfully  and  nobly  strug 
gling  with  the  difficulties  of  want  and  peril.  They  have  ta 
ken  their  post  where  retreat  is  cut  off,  and  if  not  sustained 
destruction  is  inevitable.  Amid  these  dangers  and  fainting 
toils,  they  turn  to  you  their  wishful  eye — they  stretch  out 
their  sable,  imploring  hands — they  utter  more  than  the 
Mondonian  cry,  "  give  us,"  not  the  gracious,  but  "  the 
promised  help  ;"  and  how,  1  ask,  in  the  name  of  Him  whose 
awful  denunciation  against  "  truce  breakers"  is  uttered,  can 
you  meet  in  the  day  of  doom  this  broken  covenant.  You, 
who  having  led  these  sufierers  into  straits,  and  now  not 
only  "  shut  up  your  bowels  of  compassion,"  turn  away 
your"  eyes  from  pitying"  and  your  ears  from  their  suppli 
cation,  but  in  various  ways  prevent,  as  you  are  able,  the 
cry  of  their  wants  and  distress  from  addressing  your  peo 
ple  !  Alas  !  has  it  come  to  this. 

There  is  one  consideration  to  which  the  reader's  atten 
tion  is  solicited.  About  2,000  slaves  are  now  offered  by 
their  masters  as  candidates  for  emigration,  provided  funds 
can  be  raised  to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  outfit ;  135  of 
these  must  be  provided  for  in  the  course  of  a  few  months, 
or  they  will  be  beyond  our  reach  ;  most  of  them  are  edu 
cated  and  communicants  of  different  churches.  To  a 
certain  extent,  the  writer  of  this  is  authorized  to  pledge 


56  APPEAL  TO  THE  BENEVOLENT. 

himself,  that  for  every  $16  given  for  that  purpose,  a  slave 
shall  be  set  free,  (a  thing  converted  into  a  man,)  put  in 
possession  of  a  farm,  supported  for  six  months  and  made  a 
missionary  of  civilization  and  perhaps  of  religion  in  Africa. 
Who  will  respond  to  this  ?  But  to  any  extent,  all  this  may 
be  done  at  the  expense  of  $60  for  each  adult  and  $30  for 
each  child.  In  behalf  of  these,  but  especially  that  portion 
who  are  soon  to  revert  back  into  hopeless  bondage,  we  ap 
peal  to  the  sympathies  and  liberality  of  our  countrymen. 
Any  response  addressed  to  the  author  of  this  pamphlet, 
who  is  agent  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Colonization  Society,  will 
be  thankfully  received.  Address  L.  B.  CASTLE,  Lodi,  Sen 
eca  co.,  New-York. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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